surmises 1 of 2

noun

plural of surmise
as in guesses
an opinion or judgment based on little or no evidence my surmise is that the couple's "good news" is the announcement that they are going to have a baby

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surmises

2 of 2

verb

present tense third-person singular of surmise
as in assumes
to form an opinion from little or no evidence we surmised that she had purchased the apple pie since there was a bakery box on the kitchen counter

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of surmises
Noun
Nothing in your life has dissuaded you from these early surmises. — Padgett Powell, Harpers Magazine, 30 June 2026
Verb
Many Spaniards lived or even committed atrocities in the Civil War, suffering a collective guilt, Ruiz Capillas surmises. — John Hopewell, Variety, 12 Aug. 2026 Evans surmises the fish that survived were in an area of the creek where less charred material and sediment were swept in. — Lila Seidman, Los Angeles Times, 9 June 2026 Upon entering the house, Donnie surmises there is an orgy-type party going on. — Demetrius Patterson, HollywoodReporter, 11 Feb. 2026 Cohen surmises that the home was the first on the block. — Culture Critic, San Francisco Chronicle, 17 Jan. 2026 Morgan correctly surmises that a misdelivered piece of mail was a move by the Game Master and not just a fuckup by the postal service. — Bethy Squires, Vulture, 17 Sep. 2025 In the study, Ned correctly surmises that Colum riled Dougal up into beating Malcolm so that Colum could be seen as the cooler head/better leader. — Kimberly Roots, TVLine, 8 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for surmises
  1. guesses
  2. assumes
  3. supposes
  4. speculates
  5. thinks
  6. presumes
  7. suspects
Noun
  • Hiring managers looked at resumes, degrees, job titles and interviews, and made educated guesses about what people could do.
    — Raghu Krishnaiah, Forbes.com, 2 Sep. 2026
  • Hilton didn’t share the pooch’s name at the time, prompting fans to offer up their guesses in the comments of her Instagram and TikTok posts.
    — Catherine Santino, PEOPLE, 1 Sep. 2026
Definition of guesses
Verb
  • Basic infrastructure, something everything else assumes is there and arguably closer to a right than a product.
    — Satya Vandrangi, Forbes.com, 8 Sep. 2026
  • The Hulu sports comedy stars Glen Powell as Russ Holliday, a disgraced former college football star who assumes the fake identity of Chad Powers — donning prosthetics and all — to have a second chance at a football career.
    — Francesca Gariano, PEOPLE, 5 Sep. 2026
Definition of assumes
Verb
  • Book banning supposes that children never age, never leave home, never become their own people outside their parents.
    — Rebecca Stafford, PEOPLE, 1 Sep. 2026
  • But that view wrongly supposes that Abundance was meant to be its own electoral lane.
    — Ryder Kessler, New York Daily News, 26 July 2026
Definition of supposes
Verb
  • Neiman speculates that polyploidy and the snail’s unusual reproductive strategies are related.
    — Carrie Arnold Contributing, Quanta Magazine, 2 Sep. 2026
  • Berman speculates that Meta will next settle the school districts case, which stemmed from some 1,200 districts across the country accusing the Facebook parent and other social media companies of spreading intentionally addictive features.
    — Jonathan Vanian, CNBC, 30 Aug. 2026
Definition of speculates
Verb
  • And Pochettino, who was sacked by Tottenham in November 2019 without winning anything, thinks that his work should be viewed differently in that context.
    — Jack Pitt-Brooke, New York Times, 10 Sep. 2026
  • Ancient critics could never quite agree on the direction of causality between Euripides’ formal excesses and the political decay of Athens around him — and Lichtenberg thinks that same ambiguity now surrounds AI.
    — Aris Alexander, Fortune, 10 Sep. 2026
Definition of thinks
Verb
  • But this presumes a kind of psychological transparency that simply doesn’t hold up.
    — Brian O'Neill, The Conversation, 10 Sep. 2026
  • The group presumes the deal would need approval from Chicago’s City Council as well.
    — Talia Soglin, Chicago Tribune, 25 Aug. 2026
Definition of presumes
Verb
  • His family suspects an operation soon after birth to treat hydrocephalus, which causes swelling in the brain, or a blood transfusion just over a year later may have carried the virus.
    — Betsy Joles, NPR, 2 Sep. 2026
  • The exact reason is still unclear, but Kostrna’s team suspects the issue may stem from how each device’s algorithms are calculated.
    — Andrew Paul, Popular Science, 2 Sep. 2026
Definition of suspects

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Cite this Entry

“Surmises.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/surmises. Accessed 13 Sep. 2026.

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