guess

/gɛs/

/gɛs/

Other forms: guessed; guessing; guesses

When you don't know the answer but you have to say something, you're taking a guess.

When you don't know the answer on a test, you have to guess. People on game shows guess when they're not sure. There are wild guesses (when you have no idea) and educated guesses (when you have some information to work with). Trying to guess someone's age or weight is usually a bad idea, especially if you guess too old or heavy. If the teacher doesn't show up, you could say, "I guess there's no class today.”

Definitions of guess

1. verb

   expect, believe, or suppose
   “I guess she is angry at me for standing her up”

   synonyms: imagine, opine, reckon, suppose, think

   types:

   suspect

   hold in suspicion; believe to be guilty

   type of:

   anticipate, expect

   regard something as probable or likely
2. verb

   put forward, of a guess, in spite of possible refutation
   “I am guessing that the price of real estate will rise again”

   synonyms: hazard, pretend, venture

   types:

   anticipate, call, forebode, foretell, predict, prognosticate, promise

   make a prediction about; tell in advance

   surmise, suspect

   imagine to be the case or true or probable

   read

   interpret the significance of, as of palms, tea leaves, intestines, the sky; also of human behavior

   outguess, second-guess

   attempt to anticipate or predict

   augur

   predict from an omen

   bet, wager

   maintain with or as if with a bet

   calculate, forecast, project

   predict in advance

   prophesy, vaticinate

   predict or reveal through, or as if through, divine inspiration

   type of:

   speculate

   talk over conjecturally, or review in an idle or casual way and with an element of doubt or without sufficient reason to reach a conclusion
3. verb

   judge tentatively or form an estimate of (quantities or time)
   synonyms: approximate, estimate, gauge, judge

   types:

   quantise, quantize

   approximate (a signal varying continuously in amplitude) by one whose amplitude is restricted to a prescribed set of discrete values

   misgauge

   gauge something incorrectly or improperly

   place, put, set

   estimate

   give

   estimate the duration or outcome of something

   lowball, underestimate

   make a deliberately low estimate

   assess

   estimate the value of (property) for taxation

   make

   calculate as being

   count, reckon

   take account of

   truncate

   approximate by ignoring all terms beyond a chosen one

   guesstimate

   estimate based on a calculation

   type of:

   calculate, cipher, compute, cypher, figure, reckon, work out

   make a mathematical calculation or computation
4. verb

   guess correctly; solve by guessing
   “He guessed the right number of beans in the jar and won the prize”

   synonyms: infer

   types:

   tell

   discern or comprehend

   type of:

   figure out, lick, puzzle out, solve, work, work out

   find the solution to (a problem or question) or understand the meaning of
5. noun

   an estimate based on little or no information
   synonyms: dead reckoning, guessing, guesswork, shot

   type of:

   approximation, estimate, estimation, idea

   an approximate calculation of quantity or degree or worth
6. noun

   a message expressing an opinion based on incomplete evidence
   synonyms: conjecture, hypothesis, speculation, supposition, surmisal, surmise

   types:

   divination

   successful conjecture by unusual insight or good luck

   type of:

   opinion, view

   a message expressing a belief about something; the expression of a belief that is held with confidence but not substantiated by positive knowledge or proof