# guess

Pronunciation: say "GES" /ɡɛs/

## Verb

1. To suppose or think something, often using 'I guess' to express an opinion, decision, or agreement, sometimes with uncertainty or hesitation. *(informal)*
   - Simple: To think or suppose something. People often say 'I guess' when they are not completely sure.
   - _I guess the meeting moved to next week._
   - _It's getting late, so I guess we should head home now._
2. To reach an unconfirmed conclusion without enough information to be certain; to speculate.
   - Simple: To form an opinion about something when you are not sure it is right.
   - _We can only guess at what caused the sudden outage._
   - _Forecasters guessed at next week's weather, since the models disagreed._
4. To arrive at the correct answer through conjecture; to conjecture rightly.
   - Simple: To give the right answer even though you did not know it for sure.
   - _He guessed the riddle before anyone else could._
   - _Nobody could guess the secret word._

## Noun

3. An answer, estimate or prediction given without knowing for sure that it is right.
   - Simple: An answer or idea you give when you are not sure it is right.
   - _Her guess about the final score turned out to be wrong._
   - _Without more information, any guess would be little better than chance._

## Verb

5. To hit upon or reproduce something from memory; to recall it correctly. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: To remember something correctly and bring it back to mind.

## Origin

From Middle English gessen (verb) and gesse (noun), probably of North Germanic origin, from Old Danish getse ("to guess") and Old Norse roots, going back to Proto-Germanic *gitisōną, related to *getaną ("to get") and ultimately to Proto-Indo-European *gʰed- ("to take, seize"). It is cognate with Danish gisne, Swedish gissa, and Dutch gissen, all meaning "to guess."

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/guess (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).