surmise

1 of 2

noun

sur·​mise sər-ˈmīz How to pronounce surmise (audio)
ˈsər-ˌmīz
: a thought or idea based on scanty evidence : conjecture

surmise

2 of 2

verb

sur·​mise sər-ˈmīz How to pronounce surmise (audio)
surmised; surmising

transitive verb

: to form a notion of from scanty evidence : imagine, infer

Examples of surmise in a Sentence

Noun my surmise is that the couple's “good news” is the announcement that they are going to have a baby Verb We can only surmise what happened. He must have surmised that I was not interested.
Recent Examples on the Web
Noun
Like the extended music video surmises, Lopez’s search for love in all forms is born out of not feeling loved enough as a child. Brittany Spanos, Rolling Stone, 28 Feb. 2024 But watching it last night, I was struck with a wild surmise about the characters’ potential origin. Vulture, 22 Dec. 2023 This surmise has led us to establish the Center for Hybrid Intelligence within SAH, which tries to combine human and artificial intelligence, taking advantage of the particular strengths of each. IEEE Spectrum, 22 Oct. 2019 When Solomon uncovered the sacral platter there in the grimy pit of his backpack, what came to him—what flooded him—was an untamed surmise, though not without precedent: Mary Magdalene and St. Catherine had from the beginning been patronesses and intercessors for the friars. Cynthia Ozick, Harper’s Magazine , 10 Apr. 2023 One surmise is that the syndrome is caused by residual viral debris that continues to activate and/or exhaust the immune system. Melissa Healystaff Writer, Los Angeles Times, 13 Dec. 2022 Instead, Rodrigues and Ohlrogge surmise, the glut of retail investors are probably not showing up for the vote. Scott Nover, Quartz, 7 Sep. 2022 More plausible, Bierson and his team surmise, is a scenario in which Pluto formed over a mere 30,000 years as rocks, just a few inches wide and drawn in towards the planet by its own gravity, pelted the nascent world’s surface. Popular Science, 29 June 2020 Scientists cite several layers of evidence to support their surmises. Los Angeles Times, 9 May 2020
Verb
The researchers surmised that while the embedding layer stored information specific to the words used in the language, the deeper levels of the network stored more abstract information about the concepts behind human languages, which then helped the model learn the second language. Amos Zeeberg, WIRED, 10 Mar. 2024 Hollywood has surmised that audiences only want to go to the movies for films that feel less like generic screenings and more like cultural happenings. Rebecca Rubin, Variety, 6 Mar. 2024 Big, splashy announcements may leave women CEOs more susceptible to stereotyping and undue attention, the paper’s authors surmise. Lila MacLellan, Fortune, 20 Feb. 2024 Naylor surmises the attacks happen in part because the country has taken action to protect its seals,as well as sharks. USA TODAY, 5 Feb. 2024 Passengers Jump in to Break Up Fight After Punches Thrown on Southwest Airlines Flight MacDonald surmised that one of the men was the blonde woman's brother and the other was her boyfriend. Kimberlee Speakman, Peoplemag, 2 Mar. 2024 Given Claremont’s tightknit community, Skelly surmises Lenz and Sheets knew each other. Jessica Ritz, Los Angeles Times, 27 Feb. 2024 Some of this sleep-time brain activity, researchers surmised, might serve memory. Ingrid Wickelgren, Scientific American, 20 Feb. 2024 Most estimates surmise that the current snow leopard population lies somewhere between 4,000 and 6,000. Jack Knudson, Discover Magazine, 6 Feb. 2024

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'surmise.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

Noun

Middle English, allegation, charge, from Anglo-French, from feminine of surmis, past participle of surmettre to place on, suppose, accuse, from Medieval Latin supermittere, from Late Latin, to place on, from Latin super- + mittere to let go, send

Verb

Middle English, to allege, from surmise, noun

First Known Use

Noun

1569, in the meaning defined above

Verb

1647, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of surmise was in 1569

Dictionary Entries Near surmise

Cite this Entry

“Surmise.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/surmise. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

surmise

1 of 2 verb
sur·​mise sər-ˈmīz How to pronounce surmise (audio)
surmised; surmising
: to form an idea of based on very little evidence : guess

surmise

2 of 2 noun
sur·​mise sər-ˈmīz How to pronounce surmise (audio)
ˈsər-ˌmīz
: a thought or idea based on little evidence : conjecture

More from Merriam-Webster on surmise

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