conjecture

English

WOTD – 26 June 2007    

Etymology

From Latin coniectūra (“a guess”), from coniectus, perfect passive participle of cōniciō (“throw or cast together; guess”), from con- (“together”) + iaciō (“throw, hurl”); see jet. Compare adjective, eject, inject, project, reject, subject, object, trajectory.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA: /kənˈdʒɛk.tʃə/
• (US) IPA: /kənˈdʒɛk.tʃɚ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

conjecture (countable and uncountable; plural conjectures)

1. (formal) A statement or an idea which is unproven, but is thought to be true; a guess.

   I explained it, but it is pure conjecture whether he understood, or not.

2. (formal) A supposition based upon incomplete evidence; a hypothesis.

   The physicist used his conjecture about subatomic particles to design an experiment.

3. (mathematics, philology) A statement likely to be true based on available evidence, but which has not been formally proven.
4. (obsolete) Interpretation of signs and omens.

Synonyms

• See also Wikisaurus:supposition

Related terms

• conject
• conjectural

Translations

unproven statement; guess

• Bulgarian: предположение (bg) (predpoloženie) n
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 臆測 (cmn), 臆测 (cmn) (yìcè), 推測 (cmn), 推测 (cmn) (tuīcè)

• Czech: dohad (cs) m
• Dutch: gissing f, giswerk n
• Finnish: arvelu (fi), arvaus (fi), olettamus (fi), otaksuma (fi)
• French: conjecture (fr) f
• German: Vermutung (de) f, Verdacht (de) m, Mutmaßung (de) f
• Italian: congettura (it)
• Japanese: 推測 (ja) (すいそくる, suisoku)

• Norwegian:

  Norwegian Bokmål: gjetning (no) c, gjetting (no) c, gjettverk (no) n, antakelse (no) m, formodning (no) c

  Norwegian Nynorsk: gjetting (nn) f, gissing (nn) f

• Portuguese: conjetura (pt) f
• Romanian: ipoteză (ro), presupunere (ro) f
• Russian: предположение (ru) (predpoložénije) n, догадка (ru) (dogádka) f
• Scottish Gaelic: tuairmse (gd) m, barail (gd) f, tomhas (gd) m
• Spanish: conjetura (es) f, suposición (es) f, especulación (es) f, teoría (es) f
• Swedish: förmodan (sv) c

supposition based upon incomplete evidence; a hypothesis

• Bulgarian: догадка (bg) (dogadka) f
• Finnish: olettamus (fi), hypoteesi (fi)
• French: conjecture (fr) f
• German: Vermutung (de) f, Hypothese (de) f
• Romanian: ipoteză (ro)

• Russian: гипотеза (ru) (gipóteza) f, предположение (ru) (predpoložénije) n, догадка (ru) (dogádka) f
• Scottish Gaelic: tuairmse (gd) m, barail (gd) f, tomhas (gd) m
• Spanish: conjetura (es) f, suposición (es) f, especulación (es) f, teoría (es) f
• Swedish: förmodan (sv) c, hypotes (sv) c

statement likely to be true based on available evidence, but which has not been formally proven

• Finnish: olettamus (fi), väite (fi)
• French: conjecture (fr) f
• German: Vermutung (de) f, Hypothese (de) f
• Hebrew: השערה (he) (hash'ará) f
• Icelandic: tilgáta (is) f
• Norwegian:

  Norwegian Bokmål: konjektur (no) m

  Norwegian Nynorsk: konjektur (nn) m

• Romanian: supoziție (ro), teoremă (ro)
• Russian: предположение (ru) (predpoložénije) n
• Scottish Gaelic: tuairmse (gd) m, barail (gd) f
• Spanish: conjetura (es) f, suposición (es) f, especulación (es) f, teoría (es) f
• Swedish: förmodan (sv) c

Verb

conjecture (third-person singular simple present conjectures, present participle conjecturing, simple past and past participle conjectured)

1. (formal, intransitive) To guess; to venture an unproven idea.

   I do not know if it is true; I am simply conjecturing here.

   • South

     Human reason can then, at the best, but conjecture what will be.

Translations

to guess

• Bulgarian: предполагам (bg) (predpolagam)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 推測 (cmn), 推测 (cmn) (tuīcè)

• Dutch: gissen (nl)
• Esperanto: konjekti (eo)
• Finnish: arvailla (fi)
• French: conjecturer (fr)
• German: vermuten (de), mutmaßen (de)

• Japanese: 推測する (ja) (すいそくする, suisoku suru)
• Portuguese: conjeturar (pt)
• Quechua: hamurpay (qu)
• Russian: гадать (ru) (gadátʹ) impf., предполагать (ru) (predpolagátʹ) impf.
• Spanish: conjeturar (es)
• Swedish: förmoda (sv)

External links

• conjecture in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911
• “conjecture” in Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary (2001).
• conjecture in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913

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French

Noun

conjecture f (plural conjectures)

1. conjecture

Verb

conjecture

1. first-person singular present indicative of conjecturer
2. third-person singular present indicative of conjecturer
3. first-person singular present subjunctive of conjecturer
4. third-person singular present subjunctive of conjecturer
5. second-person singular imperative of conjecturer