conjecture

See also: conjecturé

English

WOTD – 26 June 2007

Etymology

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)).

Pronunciation

  • (non-rhotic)
    • (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /kənˈd͡ʒɛkt͡ʃə/, [kʰənˈd͡ʒɛkt͡ʃə]
    • (Australia) IPA(key): /kənˈd͡ʒekt͡ʃə/, [kʰənˈd͡ʒekt͡ʃə]
      • Audio (Queensland):(file)
  • (rhotic)
  • Rhymes: -ɛkt͡ʃə(ɹ)
  • Hyphenation: con‧jec‧ture

Noun

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.

Synonyms

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

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[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], 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.

Derived terms

Translations

Further reading

French

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

    Learned borrowing from Latin coniectūra.

    Noun

    conjecture f (plural conjectures)

    1. conjecture
      Near-synonyms: hypothèse, supputation
    Usage notes
    Derived terms

    Further reading

    Etymology 2

    See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

    Verb

    conjecture

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

    Latin

    Participle

    conjectūre

    1. vocative masculine singular of conjectūrus

    Portuguese

    Verb

    conjecture

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