guess
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: enpr: gĕs
ipa: /ɡɛs/
rhymes: -ɛs
Forms: form: guesses
form: guessing
form: guessed
form: guessed
form: no-table-tags
form: glossary
form: guess
form: guess
form: guessed
form: guess
form: guessest
form: guessed
form: guessedst
form: guesses
form: guesseth
form: guessed
form: guess
form: guessed
form: guess
form: guessed
form: guess
form: -
form: guessing
form: guessed
Etymology: From Middle English gessen (verb) and Middle English gesse (noun), probably of North Germanic origin, from Old Danish getse, gitse, getsa (“to guess”), from Old Norse *getsa, *gitsa, from Proto-Germanic *gitisōną (“to guess”), from Proto-Germanic *getaną (“to get”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰed- (“to take, seize”).
Cognate with Danish gisne (“to guess”), Norwegian gissa, gjette (“to guess”), Swedish gissa (“to guess”), Saterland Frisian gisje (“to guess”), Dutch gissen (“to guess”), Low German gissen (“to guess”), Dutch gis (“a guess”). Related also to Icelandic giska ("to guess"; from Proto-Germanic *gitiskōną). Compare also Russian гада́ть (gadátʹ, “to conjecture, guess, divine”), Albanian gjëzë (“riddle”) from gjej (“find, recover, obtain”). More at get.
Senses: examples: text: We can only guess at what was going through her mind.
text: She guessed that the delivery driver must have got stuck in traffic.
glosses: To reach a partly (or totally) unconfirmed conclusion; to engage in conjecture; to speculate.
examples: text: He who guesses the riddle shall have the ring.
text: You guessed the right answer!
text: You will never guess what happened next.
glosses: To solve by a correct conjecture; to conjecture rightly.
examples: text: That album is quite hard to find, but I guess you could try ordering it online.
text: Not all together; better far, I guess, / That we do make our entrance several ways.
ref: c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i]:
text: But in known images of life I guess / The labour greater.
ref: 1733–1737, Alexander Pope, [Imitations of Horace], London: […] R[obert] Dodsley [et al.]:
text: "Are you a member of the union?"
"Sure."
"Then you'll get your job, I guess. Have you any friends?"
ref: 1914–1915, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Valley of Fear:
glosses: to suppose, to imagine (introducing a proposition of uncertain plausibility).
examples: text: "I guess you were right." "What did he say?" "He guesses you were right."
text: "I guess I'll go to bed."
glosses: To think, conclude, or decide (without a connotation of uncertainty). Usually in first person: "I guess".
examples: text: Tell me their words, as near as thou canst guess them.
ref: c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:
glosses: To hit upon or reproduce by memory.
Synonyms: assume
conjecture
hypothesize
speculate
suppose
surmise
take a stab
Derived terms: foreguess
guessability
guessable
guesser
guessing game
guessive
guess the verb
guesstimate
guesstimation
guess what
guesswork
guestimate
keep someone guessing
misguess
no prize for guessing
no prizes for guessing
outguess
out-guess
second-guess
underguess
unguessability
you'll never guess