From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishconjecturecon‧jec‧ture1 /kənˈdʒektʃə $ -ər/ noun formal 1 [uncountable]GUESS when you form ideas or opinions without having very much information to base them on What she said was pure conjecture. There has been some conjecture about a possible merger.2 [countable]GUESS an idea or opinion formed by guessing SYN guess, hypothesis My results show that this conjecture was, in fact, correct. —conjectural adjective
Examples from the Corpus
conjecture• Significant advances will be marked by the confirmation of bold conjectures or the falsification of cautious conjectures.• If Cantor decided to wear it, his tumorigenesis theory would become just another discarded conjecture in the cancer field.• It is a mistake to regard the falsification of bold, highly falsifiable conjectures as the occasions of significant advance in science.• Initially this was scoffed at as farfetched conjecture, but gradually it has received grudging respect and empirical support.• It's a matter for conjecture who wrote the original text in the fifteenth century.• The unknown is always the most fearsome, opening out into wide areas of conjecture.• In the author's view the Lucas supply function comprises an arbitrarily concocted mishmash of conjectures and suppositions.• Jackson's political plans have been the subject of conjecture since he moved to Washington.• Any prediction about the bond markets, of course, is part conjecture.• The judge dismissed the evidence as pure conjecture.• You get the sense that, no matter what the outcome, everyone suffers from this kind of racial conjecture.pure conjecture• It is pure conjecture on their part.conjectureconjecture2 verb [intransitive, transitive] formal GUESSto form an idea or opinion without having much information to base it on SYN guessconjecture that It seems reasonable to conjecture that these conditions breed violence.→ See Verb tableExamples from the Corpus
conjecture• "Maybe Burt is jealous, " Isabelle conjectured.• The impact of this episode upon the efforts to change the style of services for mentally ill patients is hard to conjecture.• Very much the same story as I conjectured for Nosema in the flour beetle and for the fluke in the snail.• Ah, well! we may conjecture many things.• He conjectured that light itself might consist of such waves.• They conjecture that literacy plays a central part in this process.• It is widely conjectured that Stalin himself planned the murder of Kirov.• But Rennenkampf did not move and one can only conjecture why.conjecture that• I conjecture that co-adapted meme-complexes evolve in the same kind of way as co-adapted gene-complexes.• He conjectured that light itself might consist of such waves.• They conjecture that literacy plays a central part in this process.• It is widely conjectured that Stalin himself planned the murder of Kirov.• Bergman conjectured that the tomb might date to the first centuries of our era.• Though statistics are lacking, it seems reasonable to conjecture that these conditions foster child abuse and neglect, even infanticide.• Deckard conjectured that what happened to Dave might happen to him.Origin conjecture1 (1300-1400) Latin conjectura, from conicere “to throw together”, from com- ( → COM-) + jacere “to throw” 