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.
Pronunciation
Noun
conjecture (countable and uncountable, plural conjectures)
- (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.
- (formal) A supposition based upon incomplete evidence; a hypothesis.
- The physicist used his conjecture about subatomic particles to design an experiment.
- (mathematics, philology) A statement likely to be true based on available evidence, but which has not been formally proven.
- (obsolete) Interpretation of signs and omens.
Synonyms
- halseny
- See also Thesaurus:supposition
Related terms
Translations
unproven statement; guess
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supposition based upon incomplete evidence; a hypothesis
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statement likely to be true based on available evidence, but which has not been formally proven
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Verb
conjecture (third-person singular simple present conjectures, present participle conjecturing, simple past and past participle conjectured)
Translations
to guess
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Further reading
- conjecture in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
- “conjecture” in Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary, 2001–2019.
- conjecture in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
French
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin coniectūra.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /kɔ̃.ʒɛk.tyʁ/
Usage notes
Not to be confused with conjoncture.
Verb
conjecture
- first-person singular present indicative of conjecturer
- third-person singular present indicative of conjecturer
- first-person singular present subjunctive of conjecturer
- third-person singular present subjunctive of conjecturer
- second-person singular imperative of conjecturer
Further reading
- “conjecture” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).
Latin
Portuguese
Verb
conjecture
- first-person singular (eu) present subjunctive of conjecturar
- third-person singular (ele and ela, also used with você and others) present subjunctive of conjecturar
- third-person singular (você) affirmative imperative of conjecturar
- third-person singular (você) negative imperative of conjecturar
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