Collocations for thought - noun

comforting, good, happy, pleasant, positive
It was a comforting thought that at least her father hadn't suffered.
Before going on stage, I breathe deeply and think positive thoughts.

anxious, awful, bad, black, dark, depressing, disturbing, evil, gloomy, horrible, negative, sad, scary, sobering, terrible
A disturbing thought suddenly struck me.

confused, crazy, strange
interesting, intriguing
original
This is hardly an original thought.

first, immediate, initial
My immediate thought was that he must be joking.

final
Do you have any final thoughts?

sudden
random
Let me share a few random thoughts with you.

fleeting, passing
intrusive
suicidal
patients that are suffering from depression and suicidal thoughts

conscious
unspoken
waking
She occupied all his waking thoughts.

inner, innermost, private

have, think
I've just had a thought (= an idea).
He remained aloof, thinking his own thoughts.

have, hear, know
Let me have your thoughts on the report.

express, share, write down
collect, gather
She paused to collect her thoughts before speaking.

clear
He shook his head to clear his thoughts.

read
She often seems to know what I'm thinking, as though she can read my thoughts.

interrupt
brush aside, brush away, push aside, push away, push from your mind, push out of your mind
An image of his boss came into his mind, but he brushed the thought aside.

dread, not be able to bear, not like, not relish
She said she couldn't bear the thought of living alone in the house.
I don't like the thought of you walking home alone.

come into sb's head, come into sb's mind, come to sb, cross sb's mind, enter sb's head, enter sb's mind, hit sb, occur to sb, pop into sb's head, pop into sb's mind, strike sb
The thought crossed my mind that Jim might know the answer.
Such a thought never entered my head.

flash through sb's mind, go through sb's mind, pass through sb's mind, race through sb's mind, run through sb's mind
All kinds of thoughts raced through my mind.

sb's thoughts turn to sth
My thoughts turned to home.

sb's thoughts drift back to
Her thoughts drifted back to that night.

thought about
He lay there thinking gloomy thoughts about life and death.

thought of
He shuddered at the thought of going to the dentist.

thought on
They asked him what his thoughts were on the government's announcement.

just a thought
Would Mark be able to help? It's just a thought.

keep your thoughts to yourself
He's not the kind of man to keep his thoughts to himself.

the mere thought of sth, the very thought of sth
The mere thought of lice makes my head itch.

careful, proper (esp. BrE), serious
You should give the offer serious thought.

deep, profound
She is known for her deep thought and intellectual ways.

little
He gave little thought to the impact of his actions on his family.

coherent
He was so upset, he was incapable of coherent thought.

logical, rational
analytical, critical
abstract
creative
free, independent, original
conscious
My job is so repetitive, it does not require much conscious thought.

fresh
We have to give the matter fresh thought.

second
I accepted the offer without a second thought.

give sb/sth, spare (sb)
I've given the matter careful thought.
Don't give it another thought (= to tell sb not to worry after they have said they are sorry).
Spare a thought for us—we'll be working through the night to finish the report.

direct, turn
I tried to turn my thoughts to pleasanter things.

provoke
The article was intended to provoke thought.

be deep in, be lost in
She was deep in thought and didn't hear me call her.

go into sth
Not enough thought has gone into this essay.

pattern, process
I couldn't see what thought processes led him to that conclusion.

experiment
A simple thought experiment may serve to illustrate my point.

bubble
I can see the comic thought bubble forming over your head.

without thought
They had acted rashly, without thought.

after a moment's thought
After a moment's thought, I accepted his offer.

freedom of thought
The constitution guarantees freedom of thought and belief.

a line of thought, a mode of thought, a train of thought
That line of thought can only lead to one conclusion.
He hesitated, as though he had lost his train of thought.

with no thought for sth
He ran into the burning house with no thought for his own life.

modern
19th-century, etc.
Eastern, Western
intellectual, philosophical, religious, scientific
economic, political
Christian, feminist, liberal, socialist, etc.

crime (figurative)
police (figurative)
They accused their opponents of being ‘politically correct thought police’.

a school of thought
They belong to different schools of thought.

a strand of thought
three different strands of scientific thought

kind (esp. BrE), nice
Thank you for the flowers—it was a very kind thought.