guess
Forms
- present (v1)
- guess
- past (v2)
- guessed
- past participle (v3)
- guessed
- present participle
- guessing
- 3rd person singular
- guesses
- Plural
- guesses
Definitions
1.To reach a partly (or totally) unconfirmed conclusion; to engage in conjecture; to speculate.
- We can only guess at what was going through her mind.
- She guessed that the delivery driver must have got stuck in traffic.
2.To solve by a correct conjecture; to conjecture rightly.
- You will never guess what happened next.
- He who guesses the riddle shall have the ring.
- You guessed the right answer!
3.To suppose, to imagine (introducing a proposition of uncertain plausibility).
- But in known images of life I guess / The labour greater.
- That album is quite hard to find, but I guess you could try ordering it online.
- Not all together; better far, I guess, / That we do make our entrance several ways.
4.To think, conclude, or decide (without a connotation of uncertainty). Usually in first person: "I guess".(colloquial)
- "I guess you were right." "What did he say?" "He guesses you were right."
- "I guess I'll go to bed."
1.A prediction about the outcome of something, typically made without factual evidence or support.
- If you don't know the answer, take a guess.
Frequency
Overall
Common· #610
By learning goal
- Everyday conversation
- Common
- General reading & writing
- Uncommon
- Academic
- Rare
- Literature
- Rare
Related words
Etymology
From Middle English gessen (verb) and Middle English gesse (noun), probably of North Germanic origin, from Old Danish getse, gitse, getsa (“to guess”), from Old Norse *getsa, *gitsa, from Proto-Germanic *gitisōną (“to guess”), from Proto-Germanic *getaną (“to get”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰed- (“to take, seize”).