conjecture

See also: conjecturé

English

WOTD – 26 June 2007

Etymology

From Old French, from Latin coniectūra (“a guess”), from coniectus, perfect passive participle of cōniciō (“throw or cast together; guess”), from con- (“together”) + iaciō (“throw, hurl”); see jet. Compare adjective, eject, inject, project, reject, subject, object, trajectory.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /kənˈd͡ʒɛk.t͡ʃə(ɹ)/
• (US) IPA^(key): /kənˈd͡ʒɛk.t͡ʃɚ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

Noun

conjecture (countable and uncountable, plural conjectures)

1. (formal) A statement or an idea which is unproven, but is thought to be true; a guess.

   I explained it, but it is pure conjecture whether he understood, or not.

2. (formal) A supposition based upon incomplete evidence; a hypothesis.

   The physicist used his conjecture about subatomic particles to design an experiment.

3. (mathematics, linguistics) A statement likely to be true based on available evidence, but which has not been formally proven.
4. (obsolete) Interpretation of signs and omens.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:supposition

Derived terms

• abc conjecture
• Beal's conjecture
• Brocard's conjecture
• Collatz conjecture
• Dickson's conjecture
• Dixmier conjecture
• double bubble conjecture
• Elliott-Halberstam conjecture
• Gilbreath's conjecture
• Goldbach's conjecture
• Hedetniemi's conjecture
• honeycomb conjecture
• Jacobian conjecture
• Oesterlé-Masser conjecture
• Poincaré conjecture
• Polignac's conjecture
• Ryu-Takayanagi conjecture
• SYZ conjecture
• Szpiro's conjecture
• Thurston's geometrization conjecture

Related terms

• conject
• conjectural

Translations

unproven statement; guess

• Azerbaijani: fərziyyə, güman (az), təxmin (az), fərz (az), ehtimal (az)
• Bulgarian: предположение (bg) n (predpoloženie)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 臆測／臆测 (zh) (yìcè), 推測／推测 (zh) (tuīcè)

• Czech: dohad m, konjektura f
• Dutch: gissing (nl) f, giswerk (nl) n, conjectuur (nl) f
• Finnish: arvelu (fi), arvaus (fi), olettamus (fi), otaksuma (fi)
• French: conjecture (fr) f
• Galician: conxetura f
• German: Vermutung (de) f, Verdacht (de) m, Mutmaßung (de) f
• Greek: εικασία (el) (eikasía), υπόθεση (el) f (ypóthesi)
• Hungarian: feltételezés (hu), feltevés (hu), sejtés (hu), találgatás (hu)
• Italian: congettura (it)
• Japanese: 推測 (ja) (すいそくる, suisoku)
• Latin: coniectūra f
• Maori: pūmāramarama, tāiringa kōrero
• Norwegian:

  Norwegian Bokmål: gjetning c, gjetting c, gjettverk n, antakelse m, formodning c

  Norwegian Nynorsk: gjetting f, gissing f

• Portuguese: conjetura (pt) f, conjectura (pt) f
• Romanian: ipoteză (ro), presupunere (ro) f
• Russian: предположе́ние (ru) n (predpoložénije), дога́дка (ru) f (dogádka)
• Scottish Gaelic: tuairmse m, barail f, tomhas m
• Serbo-Croatian: pretpostavka (sh) f, nagađanje n
• Slovak: konjektúra f
• Spanish: conjetura (es) f, suposición (es) f, especulación (es) f, teoría (es) f
• Swedish: förmodan (sv) c
• Turkish: konjektür (tr)

supposition based upon incomplete evidence; a hypothesis

• Bulgarian: догадка (bg) f (dogadka)
• Dutch: conjectuur (nl) f, hypothese (nl) f, vermoeden (nl) n
• Finnish: olettamus (fi), hypoteesi (fi)
• French: conjecture (fr) f
• German: Vermutung (de) f, Hypothese (de) f, Konjektur (de) f
• Greek: υπόθεση (el) f (ypóthesi)
• Hungarian: feltevés (hu), hipotézis (hu)
• Japanese: 忖度 (ja) (sontaku)
• Maori: pūmāramarama
• Portuguese: hipótese (pt) f
• Romanian: ipoteză (ro)
• Russian: гипо́теза (ru) f (gipóteza), предположе́ние (ru) n (predpoložénije), дога́дка (ru) f (dogádka)
• Sanskrit: तर्क (sa) m (tarka)
• Scottish Gaelic: tuairmse m, barail f, tomhas m
• Serbo-Croatian: hipoteza (sh) f, pretpostavka (sh) f, spekulacija (sh) f
• Spanish: conjetura (es) f, suposición (es) f, especulación (es) f, teoría (es) f, hipótesis (es) f
• Swedish: förmodan (sv) c, hypotes (sv) c
• Turkish: tahmin (tr)

statement likely to be true based on available evidence, but which has not been formally proven

• Dutch: hypothese (nl) f, vermoeden (nl) n
• Finnish: otaksuma (fi), olettamus (fi), väite (fi)
• French: conjecture (fr) f
• German: Vermutung (de) f, Hypothese (de) f
• Greek: υπόθεση (el) f or n (ypóthesi)
• Hebrew: השערה‎ (he) f (hash'ará)
• Hungarian: sejtés (hu)
• Icelandic: tilgáta (is) f
• Maori: pūmāramarama
• Norwegian:

  Norwegian Bokmål: konjektur m

  Norwegian Nynorsk: konjektur m

• Portuguese: conjetura (pt) f, conjectura (pt) f
• Romanian: supoziție (ro), teoremă (ro)
• Russian: предположе́ние (ru) n (predpoložénije)
• Scottish Gaelic: tuairmse m, barail f
• Serbo-Croatian: pretpostavka (sh) f
• Spanish: conjetura (es) f, suposición (es) f, especulación (es) f, teoría (es) f
• Swedish: förmodan (sv) c
• Turkish: konjektür (tr)

Verb

conjecture (third-person singular simple present conjectures, present participle conjecturing, simple past and past participle conjectured)

1. (formal, intransitive) To guess; to venture an unproven idea.

   I do not know if it is true; I am simply conjecturing here.

2. (transitive) To infer on slight evidence; to guess at.
   • February 22, 1685, Robert South, All Contingences under the Direction of God's Providence (sermon preached at Westminster Abbey)
   • 1838 (date written)​, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XIX, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], published 1842, →OCLC, page 243:

     "Most likely he who is the shorter of the two;—no! he goes in the first, and is, of course, the eldest; but we have no time for conjecturing now."

     Human reason can then, at the best, but conjecture what will be.

Translations

to guess

• Bulgarian: предполагам (bg) (predpolagam)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 推測／推测 (zh) (tuīcè)

• Dutch: gissen (nl), vermoeden (nl), veronderstellen (nl)
• Esperanto: konjekti
• Finnish: arvailla (fi)
• French: conjecturer (fr)
• German: vermuten (de), mutmaßen (de), spekulieren (de)
• Greek: εικάζω (el) (eikázo), υποθέτω (el) (ypothéto)

  Ancient: ὑπονοέω (huponoéō)

• Hungarian: feltételez (hu), találgat, feltételezésekbe bocsátkozik
• Italian: congetturare (it)
• Japanese: 推測する (ja) (すいそくする, suisoku suru)
• Latin: opīnor, * Latin: coniectō
• Portuguese: conjeturar (pt)
• Quechua: hamurpay
• Russian: гада́ть (ru) impf (gadátʹ), предполага́ть (ru) impf (predpolagátʹ)
• Serbo-Croatian: nagađati (sh)
• Spanish: conjeturar (es), barruntar (es), especular (es)
• Swedish: förmoda (sv)

Further reading

• “conjecture”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• Douglas Harper (2001–2023), “conjecture”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
• “conjecture”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin coniectūra.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kɔ̃.ʒɛk.tyʁ/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

conjecture f (plural conjectures)

1. conjecture

Usage notes

Not to be confused with conjoncture.

Verb

conjecture

1. inflection of conjecturer:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. second-person singular imperative

Further reading

• “conjecture”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Latin

Participle

conjectūre

1. vocative masculine singular of conjectūrus

Portuguese

Verb

conjecture

1. inflection of conjecturar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative