infer
Americanverb (used with object)
-
to derive by reasoning; conclude or judge from premises or evidence.
They inferred his displeasure from his cool tone of voice.
- Synonyms:
- suppose, conjecture, imagine, reason, deduce
-
(of facts, circumstances, statements, etc.) to indicate or involve as a conclusion; lead to.
verb (used without object)
verb
-
to conclude (a state of affairs, supposition, etc) by reasoning from evidence; deduce
-
(tr) to have or lead to as a necessary or logical consequence; indicate
-
(tr) to hint or imply
Usage
Infer has been used to mean “to hint or suggest” since the 16th century by speakers and writers of unquestioned ability and eminence: The next speaker criticized the proposal, inferring that it was made solely to embarrass the government. Despite its long history, many usage guides condemn the use, maintaining that the proper word for the intended sense is imply and that to use infer is to lose a valuable distinction between the two words. Although the claimed distinction has probably existed chiefly in the pronouncements of usage guides, and although the use of infer to mean “to suggest” usually produces no ambiguity, the distinction too has a long history and is widely observed by many speakers and writers.
The use of infer to mean imply is becoming more and more common in both speech and writing. There is nevertheless a useful distinction between the two which many people would be in favour of maintaining. To infer means `to deduce', and is used in the construction to infer something from something : I inferred from what she said that she had not been well . To imply (sense 1) means `to suggest, to insinuate' and is normally followed by a clause: are you implying that I was responsible for the mistake?
Other Word Forms
- inferable adjective
- inferably adverb
- inferrable adjective
- inferrer noun
- misinfer verb
- noninferable adjective
- noninferably adverb
- subinfer verb
- uninferable adjective
Etymology
Origin of infer
First recorded in 1520–30; from Latin inferre, equivalent to in- + ferre “to bring, carry, bear”; in- 2, bear 1
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The judge would have to infer guilt from the fact that stories contained private information, and, he claimed, Mail journalists had a "propensity" to use unlawful methods.
From BBC
That case, the company said, “related to an engineer following inaccurate advice that an AI tool inferred from an outdated internal wiki,” and none involved “AI-written code.”
From Los Angeles Times
Treasury yields as traders responded to Middle East developments and inferred a hawkish read from this week’s Fed meeting.
By combining telescope observations with detailed models of planetary interiors and atmospheres, they were able to infer what is happening deep inside the planet.
From Science Daily
Until now, researchers studying this system relied largely on biochemical experiments and computer modeling to infer how the mechanism worked.
From Science Daily
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
