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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

guess.

To reach a partly (or totally) unconfirmed conclusion; to engage in conjecture; to speculate.

5 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/ɡɛs/
  1. To reach a partly (or totally) unconfirmed conclusion; to engage in conjecture; to speculate.

    We can only guess at what was going through her mind.
    She guessed that the delivery driver must have got stuck in traffic.
  2. To solve by a correct conjecture; to conjecture rightly.

    He who guesses the riddle shall have the ring.
    You guessed the right answer!
  3. To suppose, to imagine (introducing a proposition of uncertain plausibility).

    That album is quite hard to find, but I guess you could try ordering it online.
  4. To think, conclude, or decide (without a connotation of uncertainty). Usually in first person: "I guess".

    colloquial
    "I guess you were right." "What did he say?" "He guesses you were right."
    "I guess I'll go to bed."
  5. To hit upon or reproduce by memory.

    obsolete
Where this word comes from

From Middle English gessen (verb) and Middle English gesse (noun), probably of North Germanic origin, from Old Danish getse, gitse, getsa (“to guess”), from Old Norse *getsa, *gitsa, from Proto-Germanic *gitisōną (“to guess”), from Proto-Germanic *getaną (“to get”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰed- (“to take, seize”). Cognate with Danish gisne (“to guess”), Norwegian gissa, gjette (“to guess”), Swedish gissa (“to guess”), Saterland Frisian gisje (“to guess”), Dutch gissen (“to guess”), Low German gissen (“to guess”), Dutch gis (“a guess”). Related also to Icelandic giska ("to guess"; from Proto-Germanic *gitiskōną). Compare also Russian гада́ть (gadátʹ, “to conjecture, guess, divine”), Albanian gjëzë (“riddle”) from gjej (“find, recover, obtain”). More at get.

noun/ɡɛs/
  1. A prediction about the outcome of something, typically made without factual evidence or support.

    If you don't know the answer, take a guess.
Where this word comes from

From Middle English gessen (verb) and Middle English gesse (noun), probably of North Germanic origin, from Old Danish getse, gitse, getsa (“to guess”), from Old Norse *getsa, *gitsa, from Proto-Germanic *gitisōną (“to guess”), from Proto-Germanic *getaną (“to get”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰed- (“to take, seize”). Cognate with Danish gisne (“to guess”), Norwegian gissa, gjette (“to guess”), Swedish gissa (“to guess”), Saterland Frisian gisje (“to guess”), Dutch gissen (“to guess”), Low German gissen (“to guess”), Dutch gis (“a guess”). Related also to Icelandic giska ("to guess"; from Proto-Germanic *gitiskōną). Compare also Russian гада́ть (gadátʹ, “to conjecture, guess, divine”), Albanian gjëzë (“riddle”) from gjej (“find, recover, obtain”). More at get.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.