Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.

Surmise

Definition: Surmise

Surmise

Noun

1. A message expressing an opinion based on incomplete evidence.

Verb

1. Infer from incomplete evidence.

2. Imagine to be true; "I suspect he is a fugitive".

Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
 

Date "surmise" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1350. (references)


Synonyms: Surmise

Synonyms: conjecture (n), guess (n), hypothesis (n), speculation (n), supposition (n), surmisal (n), suspect (v). (additional references)

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Synonyms within Context: Surmise

ContextSynonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).

Belief

View as, consider as, take as, hold as, conceive as, regard as, esteem as, deem as, look upon as, account as, set down as; surmise.

Persuasion, conviction, convincement, plerophory, self-conviction; certainty; opinion, mind, view; conception, thinking; impression; (idea); surmise; conclusion; (judgment).

Supposition

Conjecture; guess, guesswork, speculation; rough guess, shot, shot in the dark; conjecturality; surmise, suspicion, sneaking suspicion; estimate, approximation (nearness).

Verb: suppose, conjecture, surmise, suspect, guess, divine; theorize; presume, presurmise, presuppose; assume, fancy, wis, take it; give a guess, speculate, believe, dare say, take it into one's head, take for granted; imagine.

Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

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Crosswords: Surmise

English words defined with "surmise": conjecturalPresurmisesupposed, suppositional, suppositious, supposititious, Surmised, Surmising. (references)
Etymologies containing "surmise": Surmisal. (references)

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Modern Usage: Surmise

DomainUsage

Screenplays

It's not difficult to surmise Nathan's feelings towards killing these guards; and my own proclivities are well-known and often-lamented facts of penal lore. (Con Air; writing credit: Scott Rosenberg)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Commercial Usage: Surmise

DomainTitle

Books

  • Blue Kansas Sky: Four Short Novels of Memory, Magic, Surmise & Estrangement (reference)

    (more book examples)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Familiar Quotations: Surmise

AuthorQuotation

Junius

Assertion, unsupported by fact, is nugatory. Surmise and general abuse, in however elegant language, ought not to pass for truth.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

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Use in Literature: Surmise

TitleAuthorQuote

Sylvie and Bruno Concluded

Carroll, Lewis

This I surmise, from having found the original draft of the last paragraph of Vol.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

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Usage Frequency: Surmise

"Surmise" is generally used as a lexical verb (infinitive) -- approximately 48.81% of the time. "Surmise" is used about 84 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)
Parts of SpeechPercentUsage per
100 Million Words
Rank in English
Lexical Verb (infinitive)48.81%4153,521
Noun (singular)34.52%2964,444
Lexical Verb (base form)16.67%1493,893
                    Total100.00%84N/A

Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.

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Frequency of Internet Keywords: Surmise

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.
 
ExpressionFrequency
per Day

surmise

4
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Modern Translation: Surmise

Language Translations for "surmise"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.

Afrikaans

  

veronderstel (guess, hypothesize, presume, suppose), meen (account, accredit, believe, deem, guess, presume, suppose), vermoë (ability, guess, presume, suppose). (various references)

   

Albanian

  

pandehje (presumption, presupposition), pandeh (presuppose), marr me mend (divine, guess, perceive, picture, presume, presuppose), hamendësoj (conjecture, hypothesize). (various references)

   

Arabic 

  

‏حدس (anticipation, conjecture, intuition), ‏تكهن (augur, auspice, divine, forecast, foretell, omen, predict, prediction, prognostic, prognosticate, prognostication, tip), ‏خمن (appraise, estimate, evaluate, guess, infer, riddle, size up, speculate, suppose), ‏رجم (lapidate, stone, throw, throwing), ‏ظنية, ‏ظن (calculate, fancy, guess, imagine, misgiving, reckon, suppose, supposition, suspect, think). (various references)

   

Bulgarian 

  

предположение (assumption, conjecture, guess, hypothesis, if, postulate, presumption, presupposition, speculation, suggestion, supposition), правя догадки, подозирам (be suspicious, doubt, misdoubt, mistrust, sus, suspect), изказвам предположение (suggest), догадка (conjecture, guess). (various references)

   

Chinese 

  

猜度 (conjecture), 猜測 (conjecture, guess), 推测 (extrapolation, Fathomed, Fathoming, Presumption, speculate, Speculated, Speculating, Surmised, Surmising), 推測 (conjecture, speculate, speculation), (estimate, figure, guess, put into). (various references)

   

Czech

  

tušit (conjecture, forebode, presage, sense, smell, suspect), předpokládat (assume, imagine, involve, postulate, presume, presuppose, suppose, trust, visualize), domnìnka (assumption, belief, conjecture, guess, hypothesis, supposition), dohadovat se (conjecture), dohad (conjecture, guess). (various references)

   

Danish

  

antage (guess, presume, suppose). (various references)

   

Dutch

  

vermoeden (conjecture, guess, presume, suppose, supposition), gissen (conjecture, guess). (various references)

   

Esperanto

  

supozi (guess, presume, suppose), konjekti (conjecture). (various references)

   

Faeroese

  

skjóta upp á (conjecture), meta (appraise, conjecture, estimate, rate), halda (account, accredit, believe, celebrate, deem, guess, hang onto, have a subscription, hold, presume, retain, suppose, take in), ætla (conjecture, destine, earmark, intend, mean, ordain). (various references)

   

Farsi 

  

گمان بردن (Conjecture), گمان (Aim, Assumption, Belief, Conjecture, Doubt, Guess, Idea, Impression, Opinion, Supposition, Thought), حدس زدن (Conjecture, Guess, Guesstimate, Imagine, Rede), حدس (Aim, Conjecture, Guess), تخمین (Approximation, Assessment, Conjecture, Estimate, Guess), ظن (Conjecture, Guess, Hunch). (various references)

   

Finnish

  

otaksua (assume, conjecture, suppose, take for granted), olettaa (assume, guess, presume, suppose). (various references)

   

French

  

conjecturer, supposer (be supposed, suppose). (various references)

   

Frisian

  

fermoedzje (guess, presume, suppose), ergje (guess, presume, suppose). (various references)

   

German

  

vermuten (assume, conjecture, guess, imagine, presume, suppose, suspect, think, to assume, to suppose, to surmise, to suspect), mutmaßen (conjecture, to suppose). (various references)

   

Greek 

  

μαντεύω (augur, guess, presage), υποθέτω (assume, guess, hypothesize, posit, presume, suppose). (various references)

   

Hebrew 

  

לשער (approximate, assume, conjecture, suppose), לסבור (believe, deem, mean, opine, reckon, suppose, think), ל חש (augur, conjecture, divine, estimate, figure out, foretell, guess, predict), "שער" (assumption, hypothesis, presumption, speculation, supposition), סבר" (conjecture, logical argument, opinion, presumption, speculation, supposition, view), חוש (conjecture, determined, divination, foretelling, guess, prediction, set, shot). (various references)

   

Hungarian

  

vélekedés (supposition), feltevés (admittance, assumption, conjecture, guess, guessing, guesswork, hypothesis, speculation, supposition). (various references)

   

Icelandic

  

halda (guess, presume, suppose). (various references)

   

Indonesian

  

sangkaan (idea, putative), menyangka (suppose). (various references)

   

Italian

  

supporre (assume, believe, expect, guess, hypothesise, hypothesize, imagine, judge, mean, opine, postulate, presume, reckon, suppose, suspect, think, to assume, to suspect). (various references)

   

Japanese Kanji 

  

推察 (conjecture, guess), 憶説 (hypothesis, speculation), 拝察 (infer, sympathize). (various references)

   

Japanese Katakana 

  

すいさつ (conjecture, guess), おくせつ (conjecture, hypothesis, speculation), はいさつ (infer, sympathize). (various references)

   

Manx

  

tuarym (conjecture, estimation, guess, guesswork, opinion, review, view, viewpoint). (various references)

   

Papiamen

  

ideá (guess, presume, suppose). (various references)

   

Pig Latin

  

urmisesay

   

Polish

  

przypuszczać. (various references)

   

Portuguese

  

suspeição (suspicion), suposição (assumption, conjecture, guess, supposition, theory), supor (assume, conjecture, consider, dream, expect, fancy, guess, imagine, make out, presume, see, suppose, think, ween), presunção (airs, arrogance, assumption, assurance, conceit, concetto, coxcombry, daring, pragmatism, presumption, pretension, puppyism, self-assurance, self-conceit, self-importance, self-sufficiency, self-support, swagger, swank, vainglory, vanity), fazerdeconta (guess, presume, suppose), desconfiança (diffidence, distrust, jaundice, misgiving, mistrust, mistrustfulness, suspicion), conjeturar (conjecture, guess, presume, presuppose, suppose), conjetura (case, conjecture, guess, guesswork, speculation, supposition). (various references)

   

Romanian

  

presupunere (assumption, conjecture, guess, idea, if, presumption, speculation, supposition), presupune (assume, calculate, conjecture, expect, fancy oneself, feel, imagine, imply, infer, presume, suppose, suspect), ghici (conjecture, discover, divine, feel, foresee, foretell, guess, Rede), conivenţã (conjecture, connivance, guess), bãnuialã (anticipation, apprehension, conjecture, discredit, distrust, doubt, foresight, hunch, idea, inkling, jealousy, mistrust, presumption, supposition, suspicion), bãnui (anticipate, conjecture, distrust, doubt, feel, foreknow, foresee, guess, imagine, mistrust, presume, smoke, sniff, suppose, suspect, think). (various references)

   

Russian 

  

предполагать (anticipate, assume, be supposed to, conjecture, expect, guess, imagine, presume, presuming, presuppose, suppose, supposes, supposing, understand), подозревать (have a hunch, misdoubt, smell a rat, suspect, suss). (various references)

   

Scottish

  

farbhas (a surmise, noise), babhd (a surmise). (various references)

   

Serbo-Croatian

  

pretpostavka (assumption, conjecture, hypothesis, postulation, presumption, supposition), pretpostaviti (assume, connote, hypothesize, presuppose, suppose, suspect, trow), nagađanje (guess, guesswork, sneaking suspicion, supposition). (various references)

   

Spanish

  

suponer (entail, expect, guess, involve, mean, presume, presuppose, pretend, say, suppose, trust), asumir (absorb, assimilate, assume, guess, photograph, presume, put on, receive, suppose, take, take on, take over). (various references)

   

Swedish

  

förmoda (assume, conjecture, expect, fancy, imagine, presume, reckon, suppose). (various references)

   

Turkish

  

sanmak (assume, conjecture, expect, fancy, flatter oneself, guess, imagine, presume, put down, repute, suppose, take, take for, think). (various references)

   

Ukrainian

  

висловлювати здогадку, припускати (accept, acknowledge, admit, concede, conjecture, infer, presume, propose, understand), припущення (admission, assumption, calculation, conjecture, guess, hypothesis, inference, perhaps, presumption, presupposition, subaudition, suppose, supposition, theory). (various references)

   

Vietnamese 

  

sự phỏng đoán (conjecture, guess-work), sự ức đoán sự ngờ ngợ. (various references)

   

Welsh

  

tyb (assumption, notion, opinion). (various references)

Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

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Ancestral Language Translations: Surmise

LanguagePeriodTranslations
Latin500 BCE-Modern

augurabimini, augurandi, augurari, mittere, putare. (various references)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

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Derivations & Misspellings: Surmise

Derivations

Words beginning with "surmise": surmised, surmiser, surmisers, surmises. (additional references)


Misspellings

"Surmise" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Sumie, sumise, summise, sumrise, Suominen, suremise, surmige, surmis, surmiss, surmize, surpise. (additional references)

Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

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Rhyming with "Surmise"

# of Phoneme MatchesPronunciationWord(s) rhyming with "surmise" (pronounced sermī"z)
3-m ī" zdemise.

Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

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Anagrams: Surmise

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams

Direct Anagrams: misuser, mussier.

Words within the letters "e-i-m-r-s-s-u"

-1 letter: issuer, misers, misuse, musers, remiss, serums, sieurs.

-2 letters: emirs, issue, mires, miser, mises, mures, muser, muses, rimes, rises, risus, ruses, seism, semis, serum, sieur, sires, suers, users.

-3 letters: emir, emus, ires, isms, mess, mire, mirs, mise, miss, mure, muse, muss, reis, rems, rime, rims, rise, rues, rums, ruse, seis, semi, sers, sims, sire.

 Words containing the letters "e-i-m-r-s-s-u"
 

+1 letter: misrules, misusers, primuses, surmised, surmiser, surmises.

 

+2 letters: aneurisms, diestrums, marquises, messieurs, misroutes, moistures, murkiness, residuums, resubmits, sensorium, squirmers, sublimers, summaries, summarise, surmisers, trismuses.

 

+3 letters: antiserums, commissure, costumiers, crumminess, drumfishes, epicurisms, fremituses, grumpiness, impostures, impressure, impureness, microbuses, midsummers, misguiders, mistrusted, moisturise, muscarines, musketries, mysterious, nursemaids, pauperisms, presidiums, puerilisms, reassuming, reimburses, secularism, semigroups, sensoriums, sestertium, simulacres, squirmiest, submarines, submersing, submersion, summarised, summarises, summarizes, summeriest, summiteers, summitries, superfirms, superminds, superminis, superpimps, surrealism, terminuses, voyeurisms.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.

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INDEX

1. Definition
2. Synonyms
3. Crosswords
4. Usage: Modern
5. Usage: Commercial
6. Quotations: Familiar
7. Quotations: Fiction
8. Usage Frequency
9. Expressions: Internet
10. Translations: Modern
11. Translations: Ancient
12. Derivations
13. Rhymes
14. Anagrams
15. Bibliography


  

Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.