conjecture

1. 1.

   a hypothesis that has been formed by speculating or conjecturing (usually with little hard evidence)

   “speculations about the outcome of the election”

   “he dismissed it as mere conjecture”

   Synonymsspeculation

   Broaderhypothesis
2. 2.

   a message expressing an opinion based on incomplete evidence

   Synonymsguesssuppositionsurmisesurmisalspeculationhypothesis

   Broaderopinion

   Narrowerdivination
3. 3.

   reasoning that involves the formation of conclusions from incomplete evidence

   Broaderreasoning

   Narrowertheorizationsupposition

1. 1.

   to believe especially on uncertain or tentative grounds

   “Scientists supposed that large dinosaurs lived in swamps”

   Synonymsspeculatetheorizetheorisehypothesizehypothesisehypothecatesuppose

   Broaderexpect

   Narrowerreconstructexplicate

Other forms of conjecture

plural

conjectures·

past tense

conjectured·

present participle

conjecturing·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about conjecture

What does conjecture mean?

conjecture means "a hypothesis that has been formed by speculating or conjecturing (usually with little hard evidence)". That is the primary sense; the word has 4 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in conjecture?

conjecture has 3 syllables: con-jec-ture. The stress falls on "jec". In IPA it is /kənˈdʒɛktʃɚ/.

What is another word for conjecture?

Close synonyms include speculation, guess, supposition, surmise, surmisal. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is conjecture a common word?

conjecture is banded "Familiar" — widely understood, used when the subject calls for it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.