guess

verb

\ ˈges

guessed; guessing; guesses

Definition of guess

(Entry 1 of 2)

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.

guess

noun

Definition of guess (Entry 2 of 2)

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

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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

The challenge is to guess the population of those three over the next 11 years and submit it to the River Ranch authorities and your entry will be entered into the computer. — David Taylor, Houston Chronicle, "Groundbreaking at 14,000 lot River Ranch signals start of master-planned community," 16 Sep. 2019 Tedder made sure to keep fans guessing throughout the show. — San Diego Union-Tribune, "Review: OneRepublic showcases the power of song at KAABOO," 15 Sep. 2019 Typically, injuries are off-limits for second-guessing for obvious reasons. — Dave Hyde, sun-sentinel.com, "Hyde: And now here come the Patriots — what (more) could go wrong for Dolphins? | Commentary," 14 Sep. 2019 Parts of the exhibit will translate a fairy tale written in Russian into English, show guests what a self-driving car sees out of its windows and have a computer guess if a person is feeling happy, sad, joyful or angry. — Patrick Connolly, orlandosentinel.com, "New Orlando Science Center exhibit explores artificial intelligence, machine learning," 12 Sep. 2019 That criticism may come to bear sharply in guessing appointments to the Supreme Court, which hasn’t had a public defender in its ranks since Thurgood Marshall retired in 1991. — Richard Morgan, Fortune, "Who Is Running for Vice President in 2020? These Are the Contenders for the Democratic Nomination," 9 Sep. 2019 There's no guessing what the next year's wave of design trends will consist of—DIY backyard guest houses? — Elizabeth Gulino, House Beautiful, "The Plan Collection's Design Trend Predictions For 2020 Are in, And Zen Dens Are Officially the New She Sheds," 9 Sep. 2019 What went wrong with the landing module is anybody’s guess—such is the nature of a communications breakdown. — The Economist, "Bangalore, we have a problem," 7 Sep. 2019 Drew guesses the two fenced maybe 75 or 100 times over the past two years. — Arika Herron, Indianapolis Star, "'It was just us four': An Indianapolis mom prepares to bury her two teenagers," 5 Sep. 2019

Recent Examples on the Web: Noun

This is our best guess as to the starting positions that have been secured: Offense: Blake Brandel (LT), Gus Lavaka (LG), Brandon Kipper (RT), Jermar Jefferson (RB), Isaiah Hodgins (WR), Trevon Bradford (WR), Noah Togiai (TE). — oregonlive.com, "Oregon State defense dominates Friday practice on the eve of a big public preseason scrimmage: Day 14 recap," 16 Aug. 2019 Tweets with clues about the new ride increased as the days came closer to Tuesday's announcement, culminating in a chance for final guesses. — Chris Sims, Indianapolis Star, "Holiday World's new ride 'Cheetah Chase' to be world's first launched water coaster," 6 Aug. 2019 The best guess among Senate Republicans who spoke with me is that Seum is steamed at Sen. Ralph Alvarado of Winchester for supporting Sen. Julie Raque Adams, of Louisville, to replace him as GOP caucus chair. — Phillip M. Bailey, The Courier-Journal, "On Politics: Gov. Matt Bevin's special session made peace with House GOP," 1 Aug. 2019 The study probably predicted a range from $200 to $1,500 with $831 the central guess. — Edward Lotterman, Twin Cities, "Real World Economics: Time to explain the basics of trade," 15 Sep. 2019 Inhale, second-guess yourself, exhale, and third-, fourth-, and fifth-guess yourself. — Irving Ruan Mia Mercado, The New Yorker, "Literal Writing Exercises," 14 Sep. 2019 Delivered to your inbox on Wednesday and Friday DEAR JOAN: What’s your guess on which animal is peeing on our outdoor furniture? — Joan Morris, The Mercury News, "Why are bats taking night time break on Bay Area front porch?," 11 Sep. 2019 Researchers made learned guesses at what sort of creature could have left the tracks. — Hans-dieter Sues, Smithsonian, "The Long, Strange Tale of the Hand Beast Footprints," 11 Sep. 2019 The network returns the highest-probability answer as its guess. — Wired, "AI Can Pass Standardized Tests—But It Would Fail Preschool," 10 Sep. 2019

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.