conjecture

From Old French, from Latin coniectūra (“a guess”), from coniectus, perfect passive participle of cōniciō (“throw or cast together; guess”), from con- (“together”) + iaciō (“throw, hurl”); see jet. Compare adjective, eject, inject, project, reject, subject, object, trajectory, deject, abject, surjection, bijection, interject.

Compare typologically Russian прики́дывать (prikídyvatʹ) (akin to кида́ть (kidátʹ)).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /kənˈd͡ʒɛk.t͡ʃə(ɹ)/
• (General American, Canada) IPA^(key): /kənˈd͡ʒɛk.t͡ʃɚ/

  • Audio (California):

    (file)

• (General Australian, New Zealand) IPA^(key): /kənˈd͡ʒek.t͡ʃə(ɹ)/

  • Audio (Queensland):

    (file)

conjecture (countable and uncountable, plural conjectures)

1. (formal) A statement or an idea which is unproven, but is thought to be true; a guess.

   I explained it, but it is pure conjecture whether he understood, or not.

2. (formal) A supposition based upon incomplete evidence; a hypothesis.

   The physicist used his conjecture about subatomic particles to design an experiment.

3. (mathematics, linguistics) A statement likely to be true based on available evidence, but which has not been formally proven.
4. (obsolete) Interpretation of signs and omens.

• See also Thesaurus:supposition

• conject
• conjectural

conjecture (third-person singular simple present conjectures, present participle conjecturing, simple past and past participle conjectured)

1. (formal, intransitive) To guess; to venture an unproven idea.

   I do not know if it is true; I am simply conjecturing here.

   • 1952 December, 'Mercury', “Modern French Locomotive Performance”, in Railway Magazine, page 804:

     What could have been done by such a machine downhill can only be conjectured, for the maximum speed was restricted rigidly to 80 m.p.h.

2. (transitive) To infer on slight evidence; to guess at.
   • February 22, 1685, Robert South, All Contingences under the Direction of God's Providence (sermon preached at Westminster Abbey)
   • 1838 (date written), L E L, chapter XIX, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. , volume I, London: Henry Colburn, , published 1842, →OCLC, page 243:

     "Most likely he who is the shorter of the two;—no! he goes in the first, and is, of course, the eldest; but we have no time for conjecturing now."
     Human reason can then, at the best, but conjecture what will be.

• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E Smith, editors (1911), “conjecture”, in The Century Dictionary , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• Douglas Harper (2001–2025) “conjecture”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
• “conjecture”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

• IPA^(key): /kɔ̃.ʒɛk.tyʁ/

• Audio:

  (file)

Learned borrowing from Latin coniectūra.

conjecture f (plural conjectures)

1. conjecture

   Near-synonyms: hypothèse, supputation

• Not to be confused with conjoncture.

• conjecturer

• “conjecture”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé , 2012.

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

conjecture

1. inflection of conjecturer:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. second-person singular imperative

conjectūre

1. vocative masculine singular of conjectūrus

conjecture

1. inflection of conjecturar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative