guess

1 of 2

verb

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 adjective
guesser noun

guess

2 of 2

noun

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

Examples of guess in a Sentence

Verb 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. Noun 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 on the Web
Verb
Fans guessed another announcement might have been made at the first Singapore concert of the tour. Mitchell Peters, Billboard, 3 Mar. 2024 Those who guess right will be put into a drawing for the jersey and must be present at the party to win. David Clarey, Journal Sentinel, 1 Mar. 2024 Competitive Wordle Score Alas, Wordle Bot guessed today’s Wordle in three. Erik Kain, Forbes, 1 Mar. 2024 Following the premise of the show, Olivia began to sing a song on stage while her dad was behind a curtain, prompting the audience and the judges to try to guess her celebrity relative. Hannah Sacks, Peoplemag, 29 Feb. 2024 People speculated on what the surgery could be for—some guessed a hysterectomy, for example—but Kensington Palace didn’t share the reason, perhaps planting a seed in people’s minds that there’s something to hide, especially since Buckingham Palace had been forthcoming about the king’s issues. Stephanie McNeal, Glamour, 29 Feb. 2024 The fourth month of the high school basketball season is approaching, and guess what: City Section Open Division champion King/Drew still is playing. Eric Sondheimer, Los Angeles Times, 28 Feb. 2024 The sales manager guessed which goods people were going to buy, the logistics manager guessed the capacity needed to deliver goods to the customer, and the supplier guessed what demand would be in the coming months and tried to prepare accordingly. Mark Schwartz, Forbes, 21 Feb. 2024 The show's cringing-while-laughing setup would be too much for some viewers — but many others found watching the gang guessing ethnicities written on index cards taped to their foreheads to be a welcome change to the hackneyed humor of the contemporary sitcom landscape. Erin Strecker, EW.com, 21 Feb. 2024
Noun
How such a discussion would disrespect Piper Laurie (1932-2023) is anyone’s guess. Travis M. Andrews, Washington Post, 5 Mar. 2024 Even so, a $40 or $41 late fee for a second infraction within six months or so, by anyone's guess, is a great deal of money to most people. Susan Tompor, Detroit Free Press, 5 Mar. 2024 The basic idea is to make a series of ever-better guesses about which numbers on which levels of the tree should become more influential. Jaron Lanier, The New Yorker, 1 Mar. 2024 Here is my guess on where Apple stood with respect to those capabilities: Battery Design, Manufacturing, and Distribution: Unknown. Peter Cohan, Forbes, 28 Feb. 2024 Jason Lipshutz: My guess would be six weeks — a legitimate smash, to be sure, but one that happens to be hitting its stride during a crammed two-month period in the release calendar. Rania Aniftos, Billboard, 27 Feb. 2024 My guess is his service will be a temporary bridge to the next fleet admiral on the bridge. Nick Canepa, San Diego Union-Tribune, 25 Feb. 2024 My guess is that in the public markets, Reddit will be pressured to get its user numbers up, stat. Allie Garfinkle, Fortune, 23 Feb. 2024 At the moment, all that Ainsworth can offer is her best professional guess. Kathleen Walsh, Glamour, 23 Feb. 2024

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'guess.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

Verb and Noun

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

First Known Use

Verb

14th century, in the meaning defined at transitive sense 1

Noun

14th century, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of guess was in the 14th century

Dictionary Entries Near guess

Cite this Entry

“Guess.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/guess. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

guess

verb
ˈges
1
: to form an opinion from little or no evidence
2
: to solve correctly by or as if by chance
we guessed the riddle
3
: believe sense 5, suppose
I guess you're right
guess noun
guesser noun

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