Library / English Dictionary

CONJECTURE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Reasoning that involves the formation of conclusions from incomplete evidence

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Hypernyms ("conjecture" is a kind of...):

abstract thought; logical thinking; reasoning (thinking that is coherent and logical)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "conjecture"):

theorisation; theorization (the production or use of theories)

supposal; supposition (the cognitive process of supposing)

Derivation:

conjectural (based primarily on surmise rather than adequate evidence)

conjecture (to believe especially on uncertain or tentative grounds)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A hypothesis that has been formed by speculating or conjecturing (usually with little hard evidence)

Example:

he dismissed it as mere conjecture

Synonyms:

conjecture; speculation

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Hypernyms ("conjecture" is a kind of...):

hypothesis; possibility; theory (a tentative insight into the natural world; a concept that is not yet verified but that if true would explain certain facts or phenomena)

Derivation:

conjectural (based primarily on surmise rather than adequate evidence)

conjecture (to believe especially on uncertain or tentative grounds)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A message expressing an opinion based on incomplete evidence

Synonyms:

conjecture; guess; hypothesis; speculation; supposition; surmisal; surmise

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("conjecture" is a kind 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)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "conjecture"):

divination (successful conjecture by unusual insight or good luck)

Derivation:

conjectural (based primarily on surmise rather than adequate evidence)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

To believe especially on uncertain or tentative grounds

Example:

Scientists supposed that large dinosaurs lived in swamps

Synonyms:

conjecture; hypothecate; hypothesise; hypothesize; speculate; suppose; theorise; theorize

Classified under:

Verbs of thinking, judging, analyzing, doubting

Hypernyms (to "conjecture" is one way to...):

anticipate; expect (regard something as probable or likely)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "conjecture"):

construct; reconstruct; retrace (reassemble mentally)

develop; explicate; formulate (elaborate, as of theories and hypotheses)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s that CLAUSE

Sentence example:

They conjecture that there was a traffic accident

Derivation:

conjecture (reasoning that involves the formation of conclusions from incomplete evidence)

conjecture (a hypothesis that has been formed by speculating or conjecturing (usually with little hard evidence))

Credits

 Context examples: 

No one saw her: they only knew by rumour that such a person was at the Hall; and who or what she was it was difficult to conjecture.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

"I can hazard no opinion. I do not know what to think, and I have no data on which to found a conjecture."

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Charles and Henrietta returned, bringing, as may be conjectured, Charles Hayter with them.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

This account rather alarmed us, and we continued to search for him until night fell, when Elizabeth conjectured that he might have returned to the house.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

And yet as he watched, uncertain whether to advance from the cover or to choose some other path to the house, he soon came to doubt the truth of this first conjecture.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

What they would have done had it not been a mistake, we can only conjecture.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

She knew that what Marianne and her mother conjectured one moment, they believed the next—that with them, to wish was to hope, and to hope was to expect.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

It is conjectured that it was in one of these that she committed the terrible crime which has caused such a sensation in London.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

While apparently absorbed in her own affairs, Jo watched Beth, and after many conflicting conjectures, finally settled upon one which seemed to explain the change in her.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

My whole examination served to turn my conjecture into a certainty.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)