Meaning & use
great thinking
Last updated
Meanings
phrasefixed phraseinformal
Used to praise someone for a clever idea or a smart solution to a problem.
Grammar: Stands alone as a comment; you do not add 'a' or 'the' before it.
Patterns
- Great thinking!
You found a way to cut the costs in half — great thinking!
Great thinking, everyone: we can reuse the old boxes instead of buying new ones.
She suggested we call the client first, and I said, 'Great thinking.'
phraseuncountable
Clever and careful thought, especially of a high quality or on a difficult subject.
Grammar: Used as a noun phrase, often after words like 'that was' or 'this is'.
Patterns
- that was great thinking
- a piece of great thinking
Solving that puzzle took great thinking and a lot of patience.
The plan shows great thinking about what could go wrong.
Common combinations
- that was great thinking
- That was great thinking — nobody else noticed the missing signature.
- some great thinking
- The report is full of some great thinking about customer needs.
- great thinking on your part
- Calling ahead was great thinking on your part.
Synonyms and how they differ
- good idea
- More neutral and common; it names the thought itself rather than praising the thinker.
- brilliant
- A stronger adjective of praise, used for any clever act, not only thinking.
Word family
Commonly confused: great thinking or wishful thinking?
great thinking vs wishful thinking
Wishful thinking means believing something because you want it to be true, not because it is clever; it is usually critical.
Practice
Your colleague suggests a simple fix that saves the team two days of work. Which comment fits best?
Choose one answer.
'Great thinking' is the fixed praise phrase. 'A great thinking' is wrong because the phrase takes no article, and 'Great think' is not a noun phrase used this way.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “great thinking”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.