surmise

CEFRC1

/sɜːˈmaɪz/

verb · noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    verb

    To guess something from the available evidence.

  2. 02

    verb

    Extra detail

    Reflection; thought; posit.

Examples

  • We can only surmise the reasons for his sudden departure.

  • "What do you think of my theory?" "It is all surmise."

At a glance

Sits at C1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
4
Parts of speech
2
Citations
5
Synonyms
5

Deep Dive

verb

Extra meaning

  1. To imagine or suspect; to conjecture; to posit with contestable premises.

noun

Extra meaning

  1. Thought, imagination, or conjecture, which may be based upon feeble or scanty evidence; suspicion; guess.

More examples

In context

  • If, as I surmise, you see the ladies this evening, you might mention my intended visit.

  • This opinion, however, is merely a surmise, which may or may not be the case.

  • surmises of jealousy or of envy

Synonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

Without any evidence, the detective could only blank about the motive for the crime.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

verb

From Old French surmis, past participle of surmetre, surmettre (“to accuse”), from sur- (“upon”) + metre (“to put”).