guessing
Making blind stabs
Guessing is forming an answer or judgment without sufficient information to be certain.
It can be wild speculation or educated estimation: I'm just guessing, but I'd say she's about forty.
The continuous form often signals tentativeness: I'm guessing you didn't read the email.
To keep someone guessing is to deliberately withhold information.
Unproven theorizing or risky investment
- hypothesisTestable proposed explanation
- suppositionBelief without proof
- assumptionUnverified belief accepted as true
- inferenceConclusion reached through reasoning
hunch · intuition · surmise · theory · presumption · deduction · postulation · stab
Near but inexact value
- ballparkSports venue or estimate
- reckoningSettlement of accounts
- rough estimateImprecise preliminary calculation
- assessmentFormal evaluation of worth
calculation · judgment · projection · evaluation · measurement · sizing up · eyeballing · spitballing
speculation
Unproven theorizing or risky investment
- hypothesisTestable proposed explanation
- suppositionBelief without proof
- assumptionUnverified belief accepted as true
inference · hunch · intuition · surmise · theory · presumption · deduction · postulation · stab · shot
approximation
Near but inexact value
- ballparkSports venue or estimate
- reckoningSettlement of accounts
- rough estimateImprecise preliminary calculation
assessment · calculation · judgment · projection · evaluation · measurement · sizing up · eyeballing · spitballing · back-of-envelope
riddles
Puzzling questions or teasers
- charadesWordless guessing game
- triviaUnimportant miscellaneous facts
- twenty questionsBinary-answer guessing game
hangman · Wordle · quiz · Pictionary · mystery · whodunit · clues · hints · puzzle · brainteaser
- game playrules, scoring, turns, winning, losing
- Charadesacting, miming, gestures, pantomime, clues
- Predictionprediction, forecasting, forecast model, estimation, extrapolation
- test strategiestime management, elimination, process of elimination, pacing, double-checking
- test takingA, B, C, D, E
- Test-taking actionsanswering, bubbling, circling, marking, erasing
guessingknowing
Possessing awareness or insight
certainty · fact · sureness · understanding · comprehension
- guessing gameActivity requiring deduction from clues
- second guessingReconsidering past decisions
- no prizes for guessingPredictable outcome acknowledgment
second-guessing, misguessing, outguessing, guessing game, guessing games