infer

I

(New American Roget's College Thesaurus)

v. t. gather, reason, deduce, conclude, opine; presume; construe. See reasoning.

II

(Roget's IV) v.

1. [To reach a conclusion]

Syn. conclude, deduce, gather, judge, come to the conclusion that, draw the inference that, induce, conjecture, arrive at, reason, construe, understand, assume, reckon, read between the lines; see also assume 1 , reason 2 , understand 1 .

2. [To assume]

Syn. suppose, presume, presuppose; see assume 1 .

3. [To imply]

Syn. insinuate, suggest, indicate, mean to say*; see hint 1 .

Syn.- infer suggests the arriving at a decision or opinion by reasoning from known facts or evidence [ from your smile, I infer that you're pleased ] ; deduce , in strict discrimination, implies inference from a general principle by logical reasoning [ the method was deduced from earlier experiments ] ; conclude strictly implies an inference that is the final logical result in a process of reasoning [ I must, therefore, conclude that you are wrong ] ; judge stresses the careful checking and weighing of premises, etc. in arriving at a conclusion; gather is an informal substitute for infer or conclude [ I gather that you don't care ]

III

(Roget's 3 Superthesaurus) (VOCABULARY WORD) v.

[in FUR]

to deduce or come to a conclusion, to suppose something from a set of facts.

The police infer that a lack ofeye contact may point to a guilty conscience.

SYN.: deduce, conclude, gather, suppose, assume, presume, *put two and two together, figure, arrive at, guess, surmise, reckon, judge.

IV

(Roget's Thesaurus II) verb 1. To arrive at (a conclusion) from evidence or reasoning: conclude, deduce, deduct, draw, gather, judge, understand. See REASON. 2. To draw an inference on the basis of inconclusive evidence or insufficient information: conjecture, guess, speculate, suppose, surmise. See OPINION.