Link Centre Dictionary

conjecture

con·jec·ture

UK/kənˈd͡ʒɛkt͡ʃə/ US/kʰənˈd͡ʒɛkt͡ʃə/ uncommon formal obsolete
noun (3) verb (1)

noun

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”
Synonyms
2.
3.

reasoning that involves the formation of conclusions from incomplete evidence

verb

1.

to believe especially on uncertain or tentative grounds

  • “Scientists supposed that large dinosaurs lived in swamps”
Synonyms

Origin

From Old French, from Latin coniectūra (“a guess”), from coniectus, perfect passive participle of cōniciō (“throw or cast together; guess”), from con- (“together”) + iaciō (“throw, hurl”); see jet. Compare adjective, eject, inject, project, reject, subject, object, trajectory, deject, abject, surjection, bijection, interject. Compare typologically Russian прики́дывать (prikídyvatʹ) (akin to кида́ть (kidátʹ)).

Phrases

  • abc conjecture
  • Beal conjecture
  • Beal's conjecture
  • Brocard's conjecture
  • Collatz conjecture
  • Cramér's conjecture
  • Dickson's conjecture
  • Dixmier conjecture

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

Narrower terms

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.