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infer

in·fer

UK/ɪnˈfɛr/ US/ɪnˈfɜː/ uncommon obsolete

verb

1.

reason by deduction; establish by deduction

Synonyms
2.

draw from specific cases for more general cases

Synonyms
3.

conclude by reasoning; in logic

Synonyms
4.

guess correctly; solve by guessing

  • “He guessed the right number of beans in the jar and won the prize”
Synonyms
5.

believe to be the case

  • “I understand you have no previous experience?”
Synonyms

Origin

From Latin inferō, from Latin in- (“in, at, on; into”) + Latin ferō (“bear, carry; suffer”) (cognate to Old English beran, whence English bear), from Proto-Italic *ferō, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰéreti (“to bear, carry”), from the root *bʰer-. Literally “carry forward”, equivalent to “bear in”, as in concluding from a premise. Doublet of inbear.

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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.