inference

noun

in·​fer·​ence ˈin-f(ə-)rən(t)s 

-fərn(t)s

1

: something that is inferred

especially : a conclusion or opinion that is formed because of known facts or evidence

the inferences fairly drawn from what's been established

Its existence is only known by inference.

2

: the act or process of inferring: such as

a

: the act of passing from one proposition, statement, or judgment considered as true to another whose truth is believed to follow from that of the former

b

: the act of passing from statistical sample data to generalizations (as of the value of population parameters) usually with calculated degrees of certainty

3

: the premises and conclusion of a process of inferring

Synonyms of inference

• deduction
• conclusion
• determination

Examples of inference in a Sentence

In spite of the fact that there are virtually no controlled clinical trials examining the effects of obesity in people, we can make some inferences from animal research. —Patrick Johnson, Skeptical Inquirer, September/October 2005

We cannot see a past event directly, but science is usually based on inference, not unvarnished observation (you don't see electrons, gravity, or black holes either). —Stephen Jay Gould, Wonderful Life, 1989

The writer of science fiction extends or projects or draws inferences from what is known and accepted. —Karl Kroeber, Romantic Fantasy and Science Fiction, 1988

Its existence is only known by inference.

The program uses records of past purchases to make inferences about what customers will buy in the future.

What inference can we draw from these facts?

Recent Examples on the Web

Positive signals Market research firm IDC expects 45% of Indian organizations to use specialized cloud services by 2026, to gain computing access, which will ease a key bottleneck for training and inference. — Priyanka Salve, CNBC, 16 July 2026

But other types of AI workloads—like inference—are much less dependent on satellite-to-satellite latency and may be adaptable to operate within satellite constellations. — Eric Berger, ArsTechnica, 15 July 2026

The answer lies in key differences between AI training (teaching an LLM to predict tokens) and AI inference (serving the finished model). — IEEE Spectrum, 14 July 2026

Compared with a commercial GPU running the same image-denoising task, the optical system delivered more than a hundred times faster inference while using only about one-ninth of the computational resources. — Neetika Walter, Interesting Engineering, 13 July 2026

Word History

Etymology

see infer

First Known Use

1593, in the meaning defined at sense 2

Kids Definition

inference

noun

in·​fer·​ence ˈin-f(ə-)rən(t)s 

1

: the act or process of inferring

2

: something inferred

Legal Definition

inference

noun

in·​fer·​ence ˈin-fə-rəns 

1

: the act or process of inferring

specifically : the act of passing from one proposition, statement, or judgment considered as true to another whose truth is believed to follow logically from that of the former

2

: something inferred

especially : a proposition arrived at by inference see also permissive presumption at presumption

3

: the premises and conclusions of a process of inferring