as in guessing
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
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for surmising
Verb
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The lemon pizza and bone marrow tater tots wow diners, yet the regularly rotating menu centered around local harvests keeps guests guessing about what’s coming to their tables next.—
USA TODAY NETWORK,
USA Today,
11 Feb. 2026 -
The restaurant's post promised a free drink to whoever came close to guessing how the cars got there, and why.—
Kathleen Hill,
The Providence Journal,
7 Feb. 2026
Verb
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Johnson cannot afford to lose more than one Republican, assuming all members are present and Democrats are united against the measure being voted on that would set the rules for debating a bill to boost domestic production of critical minerals.—
Justin Papp,
CNBC,
10 Feb. 2026
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The instinct was to start with the largest model possible, assuming that adaptation would naturally improve performance.—
Abhas Ricky,
Fortune,
10 Feb. 2026
Verb
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Even supposing the pledges in the 1990s documents amounted to a crime, the legal deadline for bringing mortgage fraud charges has expired.—
Aysha Bagchi,
USA Today,
8 Dec. 2025
Verb
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Shortly after, a family member of Mitchell's reached out to police, suspecting Immanuel was actually Mitchell.—
Allison DeGrushe,
Entertainment Weekly,
21 Jan. 2026
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By episode five, Michael had moved on from suspecting Yam Yam to suspecting Colton, who was a ringleader in the previous episode’s banishment of Big Brother fan favorite Tiffany Mitchell.—
Joe Reid,
Vulture,
16 Jan. 2026
Verb
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With the penultimate hour now streaming, only one episode remains, and, without any renewal news to say otherwise, fans are speculating this could be the end of the saga from creator Meaghan Oppenheimer.—
Jackie Strause,
HollywoodReporter,
11 Feb. 2026
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Meanwhile, some of those astronomers began speculating that, like our planet and its inhabitants, the very stars were subject to change, forming and growing and eventually dying.—
Kathryn Schulz,
New Yorker,
9 Feb. 2026
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Cite this Entry
“Surmising.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/surmising. Accessed 15 Feb. 2026.
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