guess
Part of speech: verb
noun
Morphological type: simple
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.
Inflected forms:
form: guesses
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: guessing
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: guessed
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: guessed
pos: verb
tags: past
form: no-table-tags
pos: verb
tags: table-tags
form: glossary
pos: verb
tags: inflection-template
form: guess
pos: verb
tags: infinitive
form: guess
pos: verb
tags: first-person
present
singular
form: guessed
pos: verb
tags: first-person
past
singular
form: guess
pos: verb
tags: present
second-person
singular
form: guessest
pos: verb
tags: archaic
present
second-person
singular
form: guessed
pos: verb
tags: past
second-person
singular
form: guessedst
pos: verb
tags: archaic
past
second-person
singular
form: guesses
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: guesseth
pos: verb
tags: archaic
present
singular
third-person
form: guessed
pos: verb
tags: past
singular
third-person
form: guess
pos: verb
tags: plural
present
form: guessed
pos: verb
tags: past
plural
form: guess
pos: verb
tags: present
subjunctive
form: guessed
pos: verb
tags: past
subjunctive
form: guess
pos: verb
tags: imperative
present
form: -
pos: verb
tags: imperative
past
form: guessing
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: guessed
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: guesses
pos: noun
tags: plural
Senses:
gloss: To reach a partly (or totally) unconfirmed conclusion; to engage in conjecture; to speculate.
pos: verb
examples: We can only guess at what was going through her mind.
She guessed that the delivery driver must have got stuck in traffic.
gloss: To solve by a correct conjecture; to conjecture rightly.
pos: verb
examples: He who guesses the riddle shall have the ring.
You guessed the right answer!
You will never guess what happened next.
gloss: To suppose, to imagine (introducing a proposition of uncertain plausibility).
pos: verb
examples: That album is quite hard to find, but I guess you could try ordering it online.
Not all together; better far, I guess, / That we do make our entrance several ways.
But in known images of life I guess / The labour greater.
"Are you a member of the union?"
"Sure."
"Then you'll get your job, I guess. Have you any friends?"
gloss: To think, conclude, or decide (without a connotation of uncertainty). Usually in first person: "I guess".
pos: verb
tags: colloquial
examples: "I guess you were right." "What did he say?" "He guesses you were right."
"I guess I'll go to bed."
gloss: To hit upon or reproduce by memory.
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
examples: Tell me their words, as near as thou canst guess them.
gloss: A prediction about the outcome of something, typically made without factual evidence or support.
pos: noun
examples: If you don't know the answer, take a guess.
"But I shall have eleven guesses," answered Ozma. "Surely I ought to guess one object in eleven correctly; and, if I do, I shall rescue one of the royal family and be safe myself. Then the rest of you may attempt it, and soon we shall free all those who are enslaved."
We are twelve billion light years from the edge / That's a guess
Synonyms: assume
conjecture
hypothesize
speculate
suppose
surmise
take a stab
Derived words: anyone's guess
guesstimate
guesswork
foreguess
guessability
guessable
guesser
guessing game
guessive
guess the verb
guesstimation
guess what
guestimate
keep someone guessing
misguess
no prize for guessing
no prizes for guessing
outguess
out-guess
second-guess
underguess
unguessability
you'll never guess
Translations: