Wiktionary

surmise

See also: surmisé

English

edit
WOTD – 22 October 2016

Etymology

edit

From Old French surmis, past participle of surmetre, surmettre (“to accuse”), from sur- (“upon”) + metre (“to put”).

Pronunciation

edit

Noun

edit

surmise (countable and uncountable, plural surmises)

  1. Thought, imagination, or conjecture, which may be based upon feeble or scanty evidence; suspicion; guess.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:supposition
    surmises of jealousy or of envy
    This opinion, however, is merely a surmise, which may or may not be the case.
    • 1721, anonymous [Jonathan Swift], “The Sentiments of a Church of England-man with Respect to Religion and Government. Written in the Year, 1708”, in Miscellanies in Prose and Verse, 4th edition, Dublin: Printed by S. Fairbrother, book-seller, and are to be sold at his shop in Skinner-Row, over against the Tholsel, →OCLC, page 61:
      But ſurely no Man whatſoever ought in Justice or good Manners to be charged with Principles he actually diſowns, unleſs his Practices do openly and without the leaſt Room for Doubt, contradict his Profeſſion: Not upon ſmall Surmiſes, or becauſe he has the Miſfortune to have Ill Men ſometimes agree with him in a few general Sentiments.
    • 1919, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, chapter 32, in The Moon and Sixpence: A Novel (Heinemann's Colonial Library of Popular Fiction), London: William Heinemann, →OCLC:
      The meeting had been devoid of incident. No word had been said to give me anything to think about, and any surmises I might make were unwarranted. I was intrigued.
    • 1962 April, “Talking of Trains: The future of Princes Street”, in Modern Railways, page 227:
      In short, the chances of the Princes Street terminal's survival seem unsure, though at the moment these views are no more than surmise.
  2. Reflection; thought; posit.

Translations

edit

Verb

edit

surmise (third-person singular simple present surmises, present participle surmising, simple past and past participle surmised)

  1. (intransitive) To imagine or suspect; to conjecture; to posit with contestable premises.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:suppose
    If, as I surmise, you see the ladies this evening, you might mention my intended visit.

Derived terms

edit

Translations

edit

Further reading

edit

Anagrams

edit

French

edit

Pronunciation

edit

Verb

edit

surmise

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

Anagrams

edit
Retrieved from "https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=surmise&oldid=82571269"
  NODES
Note 1