muse

¹

[myooz]

verb (used without object)

mused, musing 

1. to think or meditate in silence, as on some subject.

   Synonyms: deliberate, contemplate, ponder, dream, think, ruminate, cogitate

2. Archaic.,  to gaze meditatively or wonderingly.

verb (used with object)

mused, musing 

1. to meditate on.

   Synonyms: deliberate, contemplate, ponder

2. to comment thoughtfully or ruminate upon.

Muse

²

[myooz]

noun

1. Classical Mythology.

   1. any of a number of sister goddesses, originally given as Aoede (song), Melete (meditation), and Mneme (memory), but latterly and more commonly as the nine daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne who presided over various arts: Calliope (epic poetry), Clio (history), Erato (lyric poetry), Euterpe (music), Melpomene (tragedy), Polyhymnia (religious music), Terpsichore (dance), Thalia (comedy), and Urania (astronomy); identified by the Romans with the Camenae.

   2. any goddess presiding over a particular art.

2. (sometimes lowercase),  the goddess or the power regarded as inspiring a poet, artist, thinker, or the like.

3. (lowercase),  the genius or powers characteristic of a poet.

MUSE

³

abbreviation

1. Mainstream U.S. English: a dialect of American English that is considered to be standard or unmarked by dialectal variation in pronunciation, syntactic structures, or vocabulary, and that is heard in newscasts and taught in schools.

muse

¹

/ mjuːz /

verb

1. to reflect (about) or ponder (on), usually in silence

2. (intr) to gaze thoughtfully

noun

1. archaic,  a state of abstraction

Muse

²

/ mjuːz /

noun

1. Greek myth any of nine sister goddesses, each of whom was regarded as the protectress of a different art or science. Daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne, the nine are Calliope, Clio, Erato, Euterpe, Melpomene, Polyhymnia, Terpsichore, Thalia, and Urania

muse

³

/ mjuːz /

noun

1. a goddess that inspires a creative artist, esp a poet

Other Word Forms

• museful adjective
• muser noun
• musefully adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of muse¹

First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English musen “to mutter, gaze meditatively on, be astonished,” from Middle French muser, perhaps ultimately derivative of Medieval Latin mūsum “snout”; muzzle

Origin of muse²

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English Muse, from Middle French, from Latin Mūsa, from Greek Moûsa

Origin of muse³

First recorded in 1995–2000; by abbreviation

Word History and Origins

Origin of muse¹

C14: from Old French muser, perhaps from mus snout, from Medieval Latin mūsus

Origin of muse²

C14: from Old French, from Latin Mūsa, from Greek Mousa a Muse

Example Sentences

“It’s funny,” he muses over Zoom from his sun-drenched apartment in Santa Monica where he’s working one August afternoon.

From Los Angeles Times

But she was a muse for the team at Sid the Cat, an independent concert promoter which has put on shows across L.A. for over a decade.

From Los Angeles Times

While walking the noisy, packed streets of the central city, with the engines of London Transport double-decker buses roaring, horns tooting and newspaper sellers shouting the headlines of the latest European crisis, he muses:

From Salon

I love that you describe the songs as arriving; that’s very different than creating with the intention of connecting to a muse.

From Los Angeles Times

He has often mused about firing Fed Chair Jerome Powell in a bid to assume greater control of U.S. economic policy.

From Salon