guess: Meaning and Definition of

guess

Pronunciation: (ges), [key]
— v.t.
  1. to arrive at or commit oneself to an opinion about (something) without having sufficient evidence to support the opinion fully: to guess a person's weight.
  2. to estimate or conjecture about correctly: to guess what a word means.
  3. to think, believe, or suppose: I guess I can get there in time.
—v.i.
  1. to form an estimate or conjecture (often fol. by at or about): We guessed at the weight of the package.
  2. to estimate or conjecture correctly.
—n.
  1. an opinion that one reaches or to which one commits oneself on the basis of probability alone or in the absence of any evidence whatever.
  2. the act of forming such an opinion: to take a guess at someone's weight.
  3. using a combination of guesswork and reliance on luck; hit or miss.
Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Copyright © 1997, by Random House, Inc., on Infoplease.
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