INFER (inferred, inferring)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected forms: inferred    , inferring   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does infer mean? 

• INFER (verb)
  The verb INFER has 5 senses:

1. reason by deduction; establish by deduction

2. draw from specific cases for more general cases

3. conclude by reasoning; in logic

4. guess correctly; solve by guessing

5. believe to be the case

  Familiarity information: INFER used as a verb is common.

 Dictionary entry details 

• INFER (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they infer    ... he / she / it infers   
Past simple: inferred   
Past participle: inferred   
-ing form: inferring   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Reason by deduction; establish by deduction

Classified under:

Verbs of thinking, judging, analyzing, doubting

Synonyms:

deduce; deduct; derive; infer

Hypernyms (to "infer" is one way to...):

conclude; reason; reason out (decide by reasoning; draw or come to a conclusion)

Domain category:

logic; logical system; system of logic (a system of reasoning)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "infer"):

extrapolate (gain knowledge of (an area not known or experienced) by extrapolating)

surmise (infer from incomplete evidence)

elicit (derive by reason)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s that CLAUSE

Derivation:

inference (the reasoning involved in drawing a conclusion or making a logical judgment on the basis of circumstantial evidence and prior conclusions rather than on the basis of direct observation)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Draw from specific cases for more general cases

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

extrapolate; generalise; generalize; infer

Hypernyms (to "infer" is one way to...):

conclude; reason; reason out (decide by reasoning; draw or come to a conclusion)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "infer"):

overgeneralise; overgeneralize (draw too general a conclusion)

universalise; universalize (make universal)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s that CLAUSE

Derivation:

inference (the reasoning involved in drawing a conclusion or making a logical judgment on the basis of circumstantial evidence and prior conclusions rather than on the basis of direct observation)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Conclude by reasoning; in logic

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

deduce; infer

Hypernyms (to "infer" is one way to...):

conclude; reason; reason out (decide by reasoning; draw or come to a conclusion)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s that CLAUSE

Derivation:

inference (the reasoning involved in drawing a conclusion or making a logical judgment on the basis of circumstantial evidence and prior conclusions rather than on the basis of direct observation)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Guess correctly; solve by guessing

Classified under:

Verbs of thinking, judging, analyzing, doubting

Synonyms:

guess; infer

Context example:

He guessed the right number of beans in the jar and won the prize

Hypernyms (to "infer" is one way to...):

figure out; lick; puzzle out; solve; work; work out (find the solution to (a problem or question) or understand the meaning of)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "infer"):

tell (discern or comprehend)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s that CLAUSE

Sense 5

Meaning:

Believe to be the case

Classified under:

Verbs of thinking, judging, analyzing, doubting

Synonyms:

infer; understand

Context example:

I understand you have no previous experience?

Hypernyms (to "infer" is one way to...):

believe (accept as true; take to be true)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s that CLAUSE

Sentence example:

They infer that there was a traffic accident

 Context examples 

And from these circumstances, he replied (his quick eye fixed on hers), you infer perhaps the probability of some negligence—some—(involuntarily she shook her head)—or it may be—of something still less pardonable.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

From the position of the new source, they inferred that it should be much more highly magnified than the supernova.

(Hubble Uncovers the Farthest Star Ever Seen, NASA)

The qualitative analysis gives a quite normal condition, and shows, I should infer, in itself a vigorous state of health.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

I caught scraps of their conversation, from which I was able only too distinctly to infer the main subject discussed.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

That they belong to a woman I infer from their delicacy, and also, of course, from the last words of the dying man.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

You infer that she may have gone out to tell her sweetheart, and that the two may have planned the robbery.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Since moons outside our solar system – known as exomoons – cannot be imaged directly, their presence is inferred when they pass in front of a star, momentarily dimming its light.

(Astronomers Find First Evidence of Possible Moon Outside Our Solar System, NASA)

The team inferred that the signal was emitted 13.3 billion years ago (or 500 million years after the Big Bang), making it the most distant oxygen ever detected by any telescope.

(ALMA and VLT Find Evidence for Stars Forming Just 250 Million Years After Big Bang, ESO)

“Certainly,” replied he, surprized, “I do not absolutely know it; but it may be inferred. Was not she the whole day with you?”

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Algorithm used in statistics for finding maximum likelihood estimates of parameters in probabilistic models, where the model depends on unobserved latent (inferred) variables.

(Expectation Maximization Algorithm, NCI Thesaurus)