guesswork
Inference without evidence
Guesswork is the process of forming conclusions or making decisions based on incomplete information rather than certainty or careful analysis.
When you rely on guesswork, you're essentially making educated guesses—sometimes informed by experience or intuition, sometimes not.
Without proper documentation, troubleshooting the system was pure guesswork.
The word often carries a slightly negative connotation, suggesting that more rigorous methods would be preferable.
Unproven inner sense
- gut feelingInstinctive sense about something
- instinctInnate behavioral tendency
- sixth senseExtrasensory perception ability
- premonitionAdvance sense of future events
inkling · feeling · suspicion · sense · impression · insight · foresight · foreboding
Guess from limited facts
- suppositionBelief without proof
- surmiseGuess from incomplete information
- hypothesisTestable proposed explanation
- assumptionUnverified belief accepted as true
theory · postulation · presumption · inference · deduction · speculation · theorizing · hypothesizing
Near but inexact value
- ballparkSports venue or estimate
- rough estimateImprecise preliminary calculation
- projectionSomething that extends outward
- rough calculationInexact numerical assessment
inference · extrapolation · reckoning · assessment · back-of-envelope · eyeballing · spitballing · rough idea
Lack of firm belief
- ambiguityOpenness to multiple interpretations
- unpredictabilityState resisting forecasts
- vaguenessAbsence of precision
- indeterminacyLack of fixed outcome
haziness · murkiness · inconclusiveness · indefiniteness · imprecision · inexactness · unreliability · unconfirmed
hunch
Unproven inner sense
- gut feelingInstinctive sense about something
- instinctInnate behavioral tendency
- sixth senseExtrasensory perception ability
premonition · inkling · feeling · suspicion · sense · impression · insight · foresight · foreboding · divination
conjecture
Guess from limited facts
- suppositionBelief without proof
- surmiseGuess from incomplete information
- hypothesisTestable proposed explanation
assumption · theory · postulation · presumption · inference · deduction · speculation · theorizing · hypothesizing
approximation
Near but inexact value
- ballparkSports venue or estimate
- rough estimateImprecise preliminary calculation
- projectionSomething that extends outward
rough calculation · inference · extrapolation · reckoning · assessment · back-of-envelope · eyeballing · spitballing · rough idea · order of magnitude
doubt
Lack of firm belief
- ambiguityOpenness to multiple interpretations
- unpredictabilityState resisting forecasts
- vaguenessAbsence of precision
indeterminacy · haziness · murkiness · inconclusiveness · indefiniteness · imprecision · inexactness · unreliability · unconfirmed · unsubstantiated
- guessworkconjecture, speculation, estimation, approximation, rough estimate
- guessesconjecture, supposition, speculation, surmise, hunch
- Predictionprediction, forecasting, forecast model, estimation, extrapolation
- uncertaintyuncertainty, uncertain, unknown, unsure, unclear
- imprecisionimprecision, inexactness, inaccuracy, vagueness, fuzziness
- speculationconjecture, speculation, hypothesis, supposition, hypothetical
guessworkscientific method
Structured process for investigation
calculation · precision · empirical research · exact science · deduction
work, guess, guessing, guessed, guesses, guesstimate, guesser, outguess, misguess