GUESS | Meaning, Definition In Cambridge English Dictionary

Meaning of guess in English guessverb [ I or T ] uk /ɡes/ us /ɡes/ Add to word list Add to word list A2 to give an answer to a particular question when you do not have all the facts and so cannot be certain if you are correct: I didn't know the answer, so I had to guess.guess wrong If they guess wrong about this, they stand to lose a lot of money. guess right On the last question, she guessed right. [ + question word ] Guess when this was built. [ + (that) ] I guessed (that) she was your sister. She asked me to guess her age.guess something to be something I guessed the total amount to be about £50,000. to guess

• guessGuess who called yesterday?
• estimateThey estimate that the work will take at least ten weeks.
• divineMum had divined my state of mind rather shrewdly.
• surmiseFrom the expression on his face, she surmised that something bad had happened.
• conjectureIt would be reasonable to conjecture that lack of exercise contributed to his obesity.
• speculateA spokesperson declined to speculate on the cause of the plane crash.

See more results » A2 to give the correct answer or make the correct judgment: [ + question word ] I bet you can't guess how old he is. She guessed the answer on her first try. "You have a new job, don't you?" "Yes, how did you guess?"  guess what? A2 informal used before telling someone something interesting or surprising: Guess what? We won the game 4–0. See more  guess what! A2 informal used before telling someone something interesting or surprising: Guess what! We won the game 4–0. See more  I guess B1 informal used when you believe something is true or likely but are not certain: [ + (that) ] I guess (that) things are pretty hard for you now. I guess I should start looking for a lawyer. It's been four or five weeks, I guess, since I last spoke to her. I guess most people know about their breakup by now. mainly US (also I guess so, guess so) used to reply "yes" in a way that shows you are not completely sure: "Should we tell him?" "I guess." "Do you like sushi?" "I guess? I've only had it once." "Will you go back to the States?" "I guess so." The doctor asked if he knew how bad this was for his health. "I guess so," he shrugged. "Okay, you ready?" "Yeah... guess so." mainly US used to show agreement, but not very strong agreement: That would be okay, I guess. I stand corrected, I guess. mainly US used to say what you are probably going to do: I guess I'd better get dressed. I'll ask the teacher in the morning I guess.

• I'm never going to guess the answer if you don't give me a clue.
• She presents such a cheerful front that you'd never guess she's ill.
• From her slow, deliberate speech I guessed she must be drunk.
• No prizes for guessing where Daniel is.
• She gave the present a quick squeeze and tried to guess what was inside.

Guessing, supposing and suspecting

• approximate
• as much idiom
• conjecture
• consider
• deem
• draw
• guessing game
• hazard
• hypothesize
• imagine
• jump
• jump to conclusions idiom
• mark someone down as something phrasal verb
• presumedly
• presumptive
• presumptively
• presuppose
• supposably
• suppose
• suspect

See more results »

You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

Imagining and conceiving Yes, no & not Accepting & agreeing reluctantly Planning, expecting and arranging

Idiom

keep someone guessing

Phrasal verb

guess at something guessnoun [ C ] uk /ɡes/ us /ɡes/ B1 an attempt to give the right answer when you are not certain if you are correct: have a guess UK Go on - have a guess.take a guess If it's not correct then you have to take another guess and try again. wild guess Both contestants made some wild guesses (= made without much thought), none of which was right.lucky guess "How did you know the answer?" "It was just a lucky guess."make a guess I think I can probably make a guess.at a guess "What's the time?" "It's about five o'clock, at a guess (= without knowing exactly)." someone's opinion about something that is formed without any knowledge of the situation: "I wonder why she's not here." "My guess is that her car has broken down."

• Both teams made some wild guesses , none of which were right.
• I wouldn't like to hazard a guess.
• That was an inspired guess.
• This is only a rough guess.
• That's my best guess but I could well be wrong.

Guesses and assumptions

• approximation
• assumption
• ballpark
• conjecturally
• conjecture
• counterfactual
• eyeball
• lucky guess
• misassumption
• misestimate
• misestimation
• overestimate
• purported
• purportedly
• re-estimate
• rough approximation
• rough estimate
• speculative
• suspicion
• underestimate

See more results »

Idioms

be anyone's guess at a guess your guess is as good as mine (Definition of guess from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

guess | American Dictionary

guessverb [ I/T ] us /ɡes/ Add to word list Add to word list to give an answer to a question when you do not have all the facts and so cannot be certain if you are right: [ I ] I didn’t know the answer, so I had to guess. [ + (that) clause ] He guessed (that) she was about 50. To guess can also mean to give the correct answer: [ T ] She guessed the right answer. To guess also means to think or believe: [ T ] My plane leaves in an hour, so I guess I’d better be going. [ T ] "Is he going to call you back?" "I guess so." guessnoun [ C ] us /ɡes/ an attempt to give the right answer when you are not certain if you are right: Go on, take a guess. Someone’s guess is also an opinion about something, formed without any knowledge of the situation: I don’t know why she’s late, but my guess is she got off at the wrong exit.

Idioms

your guess is as good as mine something is anyone's guess (Definition of guess from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of guess

guess Secondly, most optimization problems depend on the initial guesses, and identification of the global minimum is not guaranteed. From the Cambridge English Corpus The listeners accurately guessed the self-identified sexuality of the speakers 79.6% of the time. From the Cambridge English Corpus On a vir tual servo-mechanism for guessing bad news. From the Cambridge English Corpus The informant responds that he guesses his father was, that he thinks he was remarried then. From the Cambridge English Corpus He saw that implicit contracts had something to say about that and guessed that the two of us might make interesting colleagues. From the Cambridge English Corpus Differential neural response to positive and negative feedback in planning and guessing tasks. From the Cambridge English Corpus I sat through rehearsal after rehearsal trying to think ahead of her and guessing what the next instruction would be. From the Cambridge English Corpus Users do not just make guesses based on frequency of word combinations. From the Cambridge English Corpus From guessing what teachers think to finding out what teachers know. From the Cambridge English Corpus However, guessing is not so simple for large programs where higher-order functions (such as map) are called repeatedly with different higher-order arguments each time. From the Cambridge English Corpus Post-hoc tests showed that the six- to seven-year-olds guessed fewer correct phonemes than all other groups. From the Cambridge English Corpus In short, guessing from context has serious limitations. From the Cambridge English Corpus Patterns and perils of guessing in second language reading. From the Cambridge English Corpus Effects of prior guessing on intentional and incidental paired-associate learning. From the Cambridge English Corpus Her research reveals that the students' guesses from academic texts are enhanced by the context provided by the course. From the Cambridge English Corpus See all examples of guess These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

Collocations with guess

guess

These are words often used in combination with guess.

Click on a collocation to see more examples of it.

best guessWhere it would be difficult to judge which of the two lines was the shortest, subjects were instructed to make their best guess. From the Cambridge English Corpus   informed guessFirst a profile of the meniscus is chosen, either by an informed guess or on the basis of the previous iterations. From the Cambridge English Corpus   reasonable guessBy reasonable guess it is meant any point in the actual room or area of the building where the robot is. From the Cambridge English Corpus   These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors. See all collocations with guess What is the pronunciation of guess?

Translations of guess

in Chinese (Traditional) 猜測，推測，估計, 猜中，猜對，猜到, 猜測，推測… See more in Chinese (Simplified) 猜测，推测，估计, 猜中，猜对，猜到, 猜测，推测… See more in Spanish adivinar, acertar, intento de adivinar… See more in Portuguese adivinhar, palpite, chutar… See more in Marathi in Japanese in Turkish in French in Catalan in Dutch in Tamil in Hindi in Gujarati in Danish in Swedish in Malay in German in Norwegian in Urdu in Ukrainian in Telugu in Bengali in Czech in Indonesian in Thai in Vietnamese in Polish in Korean in Italian अंदाज वर्तवणे, ओळखणे, आपण बरोबर आहात की नाही याची खात्री नसताना योग्य उत्तर देण्याचा प्रयत्न… See more ～を推測する, （推測で）～を言い当てる, 推測すること… See more tahmin etmek, kestirmeye çalışmak, tahminde bulunmak… See more (essayer de) deviner, supposition [feminine], deviner… See more endevinar, suposar, encertar… See more gissen, raden (naar), geloven… See more உங்களிடம் எல்லா உண்மைகளும் இல்லாதபோது ஒரு குறிப்பிட்ட கேள்விக்கு பதில் அளிக்க வேண்டும், எனவே நீங்கள் சரியாக இருந்தால் உறுதியாக இருக்க முடியாது, சரியான பதிலைக் கொடுக்க அல்லது சரியான தீர்ப்பை வழங்க… See more (किसी के प्रश्न के उत्तर में सभी तथ्य न मालूम होने के कारण) अनुमान लगाना, अंदाजा लगाना, सही उत्तर देने या सही निर्णय लेने के लिए… See more અટકળ, અનુમાન, ધારણા… See more gætte, formode, gæt… See more gissa, tro, anta… See more teka, nampaknya, tekaan… See more (er)raten, denken, die Vermutung… See more gjettet, gjetning [masculine], tips [neuter]… See more اندازہ کرنا, اندازہ لگانا, صحیح اندازہ لگانا… See more вгадати, гадати, вважати… See more అంచనా, అంచనా/ తెలవటం, ఊహ… See more অনুমান করা, আন্দাজ করা, সঠিক উত্তর দেওয়া বা সঠিক বিচার করা… See more odhadnout, hádat, tušit… See more menebak, menduga, mengira… See more เดา, คิดว่า, การคาดการณ์… See more phỏng đoán, giả dụ, dự đoán… See more zgadywać, domyślać się, zgadnąć… See more 추측하다, 알아맞히다, 추측… See more indovinare, congetturare, tentativo di indovinare… See more Need a translator?

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guernsey guerrilla guerrilla gardening guerrilla marketing guess guess at something phrasal verb guess something to be something guess what? phrase guessed {{#randomImageQuizHook.filename}} {{#randomImageQuizHook.isQuiz}} Test your vocabulary with our fun image quizzes Try a quiz now {{/randomImageQuizHook.isQuiz}} {{^randomImageQuizHook.isQuiz}} {{/randomImageQuizHook.isQuiz}} {{/randomImageQuizHook.filename}}

More meanings of guess

• educated guess
• lucky guess
• second-guess
• guess something to be something
• your guess is as good as mine idiom
• something is anyone's guess idiom
• guess at something phrasal verb

See all meanings

• guess at something phrasal verb

See all phrasal verb meanings

• your guess is as good as mine idiom
• something is anyone's guess idiom
• guess what? phrase
• guess what! phrase
• at a guess idiom
• be anyone's guess idiom
• your guess is as good as mine idiom

See all idioms and phrases

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hit

UK /hɪt/ US /hɪt/

to have an unpleasant or negative effect on a person or thing

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• English   
  • Verb 
    • guess
    • guess what?
    • guess what!
    • I guess
  Noun
• American   VerbNoun
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• Collocations

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