I think in thoughts. It boggled my mind to learn this isn't how everyone thinks
Like, I don't have a running narrative in my head - words bubble up, but it's just like muttering, just occasional words. I only try to put them into sentences when I'm talking or imagining talking - like everything I write.
I don't read like this, which is part of why I'll terrible with names - if I read a book, I don't know how to say or spell a character's name until I try
If I had to describe it, it's like memories. If you think elephant, you might see an elephant, you might hear the word elephant - but on some level you also probably think about things related to the concept. Like memories of seeing an elephant, elephant facts, other African animals
That bundled concept is elephant to me - the word is how you say it, I can get the impression of looking at an elephant, I can hear their cry - but at the center of this web of details is an elephant
I build my thoughts by chaining these concepts together, and where they fit together is the main thread of the train of thought - I can then move my focus across this thread and the hanging threads to solve problems
Things just click together or they don't
If you tell me you feel like an elephant (and I have no idea what that could mean) I'd take the two concepts and try to draw threads between them. I cycle through concepts that feel in between them - elephant in the room, large/imposing, unforgiving, powerful - these loosely fit from elephant to your mental state. And from the other side, ugly, isolated/seen as an outsider/problem, or maybe you mean you literally feel like an elephant in a human body
Threads link between them or they don't, maybe I'm missing an intermediate concept I haven't yet associated with either and I have no idea what you mean
And that's how I think. If I had to link it to a sense, it's like proprioception - I'm moving through my thoughts and linking together connections, but it's my my own mind I'm moving through and around me
But ultimately, it's not words - there are concepts I don't know how to label, although words help me identify concepts