conjecture

Etymology

From Old French, 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^(key): /kənˈd͡ʒɛk.t͡ʃə(ɹ)/
• (US) IPA^(key): /kənˈd͡ʒɛk.t͡ʃɚ/

• 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.

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.

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

Further reading

• “conjecture” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Participle

conjectūre

1. vocative masculine singular of conjectūrus

Verb

conjecture

1. first-person singular (eu) present subjunctive of conjecturar
2. third-person singular (ele and ela, also used with você and others) present subjunctive of conjecturar
3. third-person singular (você) affirmative imperative of conjecturar
4. third-person singular (você) negative imperative of conjecturar