Russian Vocabulary (and Wisdom)

How to say "thought" in Russian

This Russian word is one of the top 1000 words in Russian. The complete list of most common Russian words is available here.

мысль

Meaning: thought, idea

Pronunciation: [misl']

Part of speech: noun (feminine noun)

Rank: #259 (see frequency list)

A woman deep in thought.

Example sentences:

Эта мысль обра́довала меня́.
This thought made me happy.
Ей в го́лову пришла́ кака́я-то мы́сль.
She was struck by some idea.
literal Some idea came to her head.
Мне ста́ло стра́шно от э́той мы́сли.
I was terrified at the thought.
Каки́е мы́сли?
What are your thoughts?
literal What [are] thoughts?
Она́ уме́ет чита́ть мы́сли.
She can read minds.
Дми́трий пойма́л себя́ на мы́сли, что на́до прочита́ть "Войну́ и мир".
Dmitriy caught himself thinking that he needs to read "War and Peace".
У меня́ и в мы́слях не́ было ста́ть адвока́том.
I never meant to become a lawyer.
literal I didn't even have in my thoughts to become a lawyer.
Когда́ постуча́ли в дверь, то пе́рвой мы́слью бы́ло, что кто́-то пожа́ловался на шум.
When there was a knock on the door, the first thought that came to mind was that someone complained about the noise.
Мы́сли челове́ка явля́ются результа́том акти́вности не́рвных кле́ток головно́го мо́зга.
Human thoughts are the result of activity of nerve cells in the brain.
Вы́броси из головы́ все мы́сли.
Let all your thoughts go.
literal Throw all the thoughts out of your mind.

Idioms and set expressions:

без за́дних мы́слей = without a secret thought
literal without behind thoughts
чита́ть мы́сли = to read one's mind/thoughts

Related words:

мышле́ние = thinking, reasoning, mind
мы́слить = to think, reason
иде́я = an idea
мысля́ = an idea, thought (informal, folksy)
мы́сленный = imaginary, mental

Proverbs and sayings:

Хоро́шая мысля́ прихо́дит апосля́.
Second thoughts are best.
literal A good idea comes in hindsight.

Other forms of the word (declensions):

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	мы́сль	мы́сли
Genitive	мы́сли	мы́слей
Dative	мы́сли	мы́слям
Accusative	мы́сль	мы́сли
Instrumental	мы́слью	мы́слями
Prepositional	мы́сли	мы́слях

Phrase recordings: Copyright(c) 2011 MasterRussian.com. All rights reserved.
Word recordings: Copyright(c) 2006 Streit Goulnara, Streit Eric, Vion Nicolas. Copyright(c) 2007 S. Sakhno, N. Vion. Distributed under CC-BY.

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