Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To infer (something) without sufficiently conclusive evidence.
- v. To make a guess or conjecture.
- n. An idea or opinion based on insufficiently conclusive evidence; a conjecture.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The thought that something may be, of which, however, there is no certain or strong evidence; speculation; conjecture.
- n. Thought; reflection.
- n. Synonyms See surmise, verb, and inference.
- To accuse; make a charge against; also, to bring forward as an accusation.
- In old English law, to suggest; allege.
- To infer or guess upon slight evidence; conjecture; suspect.
- Synonyms Imagine, Guess, etc. (see conjecture); fancy, apprehend, mistrust.
- n. In old English law, a suggestion. See suggestion, 5.
- n. In ecclesiastical law, an allegation in a libel.
Wiktionary
- n. Thought, imagination, or conjecture, which may be based upon feeble or scanty evidence; suspicion; guess; as, surmises of jealousy or of envy.
- n. Reflection; thought; posit.
- v. To conjecture, to opine or to posit with contestable premises.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A thought, imagination, or conjecture, which is based upon feeble or scanty evidence; suspicion; guess.
- n. obsolete Reflection; thought.
- v. To imagine without certain knowledge; to infer on slight grounds; to suppose, conjecture, or suspect; to guess.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a message expressing an opinion based on incomplete evidence
- v. imagine to be the case or true or probable
- v. infer from incomplete evidence
Etymologies
- From Old French surmis, past participle of surmetre, surmettre ("to accuse"), from sur- ("upon") + metre ("to put"). (Wiktionary)
- Middle English surmisen, to accuse, from Old French surmise, feminine past participle of surmettre : sur-, sur- + mettre, to put (from Latin mittere). (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“As you can surmise from the whole movie situation, the Colombian bus system seems to be run by evangelicals and lewd fellows of the baser sort.”
“But all I can surmise is that compared to those mushy frozen vegetables that I mentioned in gross foods, these were heaven.”
“What really happened we do not know, but the agreed surmise is that it was some stroke of the heart.”
“Second, as I'm sure you may surmise, is the word "author.”
“We can surmise from the inventory too that Salas was probably a literate man as his goods included four books on surgery, a book of stories, and two hand-painted writing desks.”
Pestilence and Headcolds: Encountering Illness in Colonial Mexico
“Also as you may surmise from the title, Nine pushes the consent issue a little before he gets an actual yes from Rose.”
“When pump number six breaks down, threatening the precious drinking water and breathable air with its released chemicals - which we can surmise is the cause of mankind's slow descent from brainy to brainless - Alvin lacks the means to fix it and so embarks on a short quest to the local college Engineering department and library.”
“But my surmise is that Ms. Woodling has been salting away a cadre of such people in the DOJ (and that at least some of this cadre have been hired over the conventionally-credentialed people listed by Bart, which in itself is scarcely cause for concern, depending on the numbers).”
“If you have not found it, you cannot know where it is, you can only surmise, which is not the same thing.”
“But all other authors [381] have found fault with Katáda in his surmise, which is not supported by any word in the text or by any contemporary evidence.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘surmise’.
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Test Prep or Just for fun
Building a list for standardized test prep or just for learning some new words! Please add any words that you feel are important for the SAT/GRE/GMAT etc...
throng, morass, parley, facile, kismet, strife, jetsam, carrion, annex, harbinger, vestige, surreptitious and 575 more...
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1100
abound, technology, branch of knowled..., prognosticate, automaton, matron, an older married ..., realm, special field of ..., kingdom, annals, historical records and 981 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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Words from Blood Meridian
visage, affray, scullery, miasma, mirth, purlieu, tacit, benighted, wickiup, corral, amble, accoutre and 210 more...
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2nd part
prelude, ample, escalate, prototype, accession, acquisition, archives, zealot, indict, verdict, intimidating, timid and 454 more...
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GRE 2014
abase, abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
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cicatrix
scar tissue
minatory, naira, Cluniac, embracive, prolix, hierophant, timorous, adduce, veracious, dysphoric, sang-froid, vitiate and 503 more...
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GRE 1100
drudgery, implore, hapless, nuance, wrest, incipient, inadvertent, tremulous, bristle, euphemism, disdain, pugnacious and 346 more...
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Favs
'nuf said
guffaw, pontificate, regalia, appease, sage, epitome, posit, dissipate, delineate, congruent, erroneous, braggadocio and 20 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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gre2
aberrant, aberration, aboveboard, abrasive, abstemious, acme, admonish, affable, affluent, alacrity, allegory, alleviate and 1896 more...
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Favorites
disparage, partisan, cupidity, hokum, tussle, odious, dastardly, overture, plane, chronic, peering, peer and 328 more...
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Words from Moby Dick
frigate, presumptuous, genteel, succor, hearthstone, gentry, factitious, bilious, insurgent, portent, enervate, genuflect and 303 more...
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1100 words you need to know
GRE words
voracious, indiscriminate, eminent, steeped, replete, abound, technology, prognosticate, automaton, matron, paradox, realm and 288 more...
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Words
My list of words.
veritable, facetious, nadir, quixotic, apropos, acquiesce, ostensible, insipid, egregious, inveterate, coax, adroit and 409 more...
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Words I Know
List of most of the words I've learned
garner, abase, abate, abdicate, abduct, aberration, abet, abhor, abide, abject, abjure, abnegation and 1046 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for surmise.
rolig This usage ain't in my 'lect. Jun 25, 2009
qroqqa I've just found this used with an object, a construction I've never seen before. Valid examples on Google for "surmise the situation" include:
Other, irrelevant instances are errors for 'summarise', or where the verb is followed by a that-less content clause ('We surmise the situation might have its roots in situations like this'), or chance juxtapositions ('As you may surmise, the situation is muddled.').
The OED does give one clear example of 'surmise' followed by an object (from 1817: 'The Governor-General surmised a circumstance, which always seems to have animated him to peculiar severity.'), and one where the object is a fused relative, which to me sounds much more natural, as it's like a clause ('Whatever the Jewish nation might surmise or know concerning a future life'). Jun 25, 2009