Meaning & use

surmise

verb·Academic

Last updated

To form an opinion or guess about something without definite proof.

See it in a sentence

From the muddy footprints, the detective surmised that the intruder had come through the garden.

I surmised that the meeting had been cancelled when no one showed up.

A note on using this word

Surmise implies an educated guess based on incomplete evidence rather than a random guess; it can also be used as a noun meaning the guess itself.

Words with a similar meaning

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Words with an opposite meaning

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