guess

verb \ ˈges \

|Updated on: 14 Jul 2018

Examples: guess in a Sentence

Definition of guess

guessed; guessing; guesses

transitive verb

1 : to form an opinion of from little or no evidence

She could only guess what he meant.

2 : believe, suppose

I guess you're right

3 : to arrive at a correct conclusion about by conjecture, chance, or intuition

guess the answer

intransitive verb

: to make a guess

We can only guess at what really happened.

—

guessable

play \ˈge-sə-bəl\ adjective

—

guesser

noun

See guess defined for English-language learners

See guess defined for kids

Examples of guess in a Sentence

Can you guess how many people were there?
He guessed that it would rain today.
It was colder and windier than I had guessed it would be.
She can only guess what he meant.
I had to choose one, and I guessed right.
If you can't think of an answer, guess.
“I just heard why he left her.” “Let me guess—another woman.”
As you might have guessed, her parents are not happy about her decision.
We can only guess at what really happened.
She guessed my age on her first try.

Recent Examples of guess from the Web

So Sacher, a pediatric nutritionist, came up with the yummy recipe below, which calls for a half cup of the cruciferous veggie (though nobody will guess its there).

— Health.com, "These Vanilla Cupcakes Are Made With Cauliflower—and You’d Never Know It," 10 July 2018
Ring changed its terms of service earlier this year, rewording things in such a way that made people guess that the company may unveil its own facial recognition technology in the near future.

— candace braun davison, House Beautiful, "8 Things You Should Know Before Buying A Smart Doorbell, Like Nest Hello Or Ring," 6 July 2018
Your President*'s personal *wink* 'attorney' is in line to face similar charges and guess who's next!

— jessica derschowitz, EW.com, "How stars are celebrating the Fourth of July," 4 July 2018
Then the Pacers will be second-guessed for not picking up Stephenson's option, and opting to sign Doug McDermott instead.

— clifton brown, Indianapolis Star, "How the Pacers cut Lance Stephenson and he signed to play with LeBron James," 2 July 2018
The changes forced insurers essentially to guess how to price their health plans.

— guy boulton, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "Health insurers file suit for billions of dollars from federal government over Affordable Care Act commitments," 2 July 2018
The Justice Department countered that the president enjoys broad authority under federal law to bar classes of foreign nationals from U.S. entry, and that the courts have traditionally avoided second-guessing that power’s uses.

— matt ford, The New Republic, "The Supreme Court Upholds Presidential Bigotry," 26 June 2018
In the meantime, Nolan and Joy have laid a mysterious breadcrumb trail for Season 3 that will both keep fans guessing and leave the options wide open in terms of casting.

— joanna robinson, HWD, "Westworld Season 3—Everything We Know So Far," 25 June 2018
Children can listen to audio books in the car or at home to help them piece together a story, a character's feelings and to guess what might happen next in the plot.

— lauren castle, azcentral, "5 tips parents can use to prevent summer reading loss," 23 June 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'guess.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Origin and Etymology of guess

Middle English gessen, perhaps of Scandinavian origin; akin to Norwegian & Swedish gissa to guess, Middle Dutch gissen, gessen, Old Norse geta to get, guess — more at get

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: 14th century

in the meaning defined at transitive sense 1

See Words from the same year

guess Synonyms

guess

noun

Definition of guess

: conjecture, surmise

I don't know how old you are, but I'll venture a guess.

See guess defined for English-language learners

Examples of guess in a Sentence

I'm not sure how old he is, but I'm willing to hazard a guess.
My guess is that he'll change his story when he realizes how much trouble he's in.

Recent Examples of guess from the Web

Whether that history, and Fulmer's recent trend upward in his past half-dozen starts, is enough to entice a contender to fork over high-end prospects is anyone's guess.

— shawn windsor, Detroit Free Press, "Detroit Tigers bet on Michael Fulmer can pay off in ace or prospects," 9 July 2018
Whether that translates to a few more fan votes in the All-Star balloting for J.T. Realmuto is anyone's guess, though.

— clark spencer, miamiherald, "Realmuto powers Marlins to win over Rockies with grand slam," 23 June 2018
How much more of this Madigan can sustain is anyone's guess.

— ben joravsky, Chicago Reader, "Clout City / Politics / News Could Dems survive without Michael Madigan at the top?," 11 June 2018
Though Asus didn’t reveal exact specs, each sheet of glass appears to be 4K resolution, and roughly—this is our guess—about a 14-inch display on each side.

— mark hachman, PCWorld, "The Asus Project Precog is a pioneering dual-display laptop, due in 2019," 5 June 2018
Whether the new reminder will also prompt drivers to break that unseen barrier that generally prevents the chauffeur from urging his passengers to wear a seat belt is anyone's guess.

— fredrick kunkle, ajc, "Uber will use its app to remind riders to buckle up," 23 May 2018
But which way the struggle will lead is anyone's guess.

— eric adler and steve vockrodt, kansascity, "After losing millions, can Prairiefire dinosaur museum in Johnson County evolve? | The Kansas City Star," 18 May 2018
Whether this will launch in the US (or even outside of China) is anyone's guess.

— ron amadeo, Ars Technica, "Lenovo hypes up an all-screen (no, really) flagship smartphone," 14 May 2018
Dear, sweet Teddy appears to back in Sweetwater this week, but in what timeline is anyone's guess.

— kayleigh roberts, Marie Claire, "HBO Just Released Four New Pictures from the Next Episode of 'Westworld'," 26 Apr. 2018

Origin and Etymology of guess

see ¹guess

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: 14th century

in the meaning defined above

See Words from the same year

guess Synonyms

Synonyms

conjecture, shot, supposition, surmise;

dead reckoning, guessing, guesswork, speculation;

hunch, intuition;

belief, faith;

Phrases

shot in the dark;

GUESS Defined for English Language Learners

guess

verb

Definition of guess for English Language Learners

: to form an opinion or give an answer about something when you do not know much or anything about it
: to guess (something) correctly : to make a correct conclusion about (someone or something) by chance
: to suppose or think (something)