different between fathom vs guess

English

Etymology

From Middle English fathome, fadome, from Old English fæþm, fæþme (“outstretched or encircling arms, embrace, grasp, protection, interior, bosom, lap, breast, womb, fathom, cubit, power, expanse, surface”), from Proto-Germanic *faþmaz (“embrace”), from Proto-Indo-European *pet- (“to spread out, extend”). Cognate with Low German fadem, faem (“a cubit, thread”), Dutch vadem, vaam (“fathom”), German Faden (“thread, filament, fathom”), Danish favn (“embrace, fathom”), Norwegian Bokmål favn (“embrace, fathom”), Swedish famn (“the arms, bosom, embrace”), Icelandic faðmur (“embrace”), Latin pate?, Ancient Greek ????????? (petánnumi), Ancient Greek ??????? (pétalos) [whence English petal].

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?fæð?m/

Noun

fathom (plural fathoms)

1. (obsolete) Grasp, envelopment, control.
2. (units of measure, now usually nautical) An English unit of length for water depth notionally based upon the width of grown man's outstretched arms but standardized as 6 feet (about 1.8 m).

   Synonyms: brace, (obsolete) stade, (Greek) orguia
3. (units of measure) Various similar units in other systems.
   • 1611, Bible (KJV), Acts 27:28:

     And sounded, and found it twentie fathoms: and when they had gone a little further, they sounded againe, and found it fifteene fathoms.

4. (figuratively) Depth of insight, mental reach or scope.

Translations

Verb

fathom (third-person singular simple present fathoms, present participle fathoming, simple past and past participle fathomed)

1. (transitive, archaic) To encircle with outstretched arms, especially to take a measurement; to embrace.
2. (transitive) To measure the depth of, take a sounding of.
3. (transitive, figuratively) To get to the bottom of; to manage to comprehend; understand (a problem etc.).

   Synonyms: fathom out, figure out, puzzle out, work out

Translations

Derived terms

• fathomable
• fathometer
• fathomless
• fathom out
• unfathomable

See also

• deep six

Further reading

• fathom in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• fathom in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• fathom at OneLook Dictionary Search
• fathom on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: g?s, IPA^(key): /??s/
• Rhymes: -?s

Etymology 1

From Middle English gessen, probably of North Germanic origin, from Old Danish getse, gitse, getsa (“to guess”), from Old Norse *getsa, *gitsa, from Proto-Germanic *gitis?n? (“to guess”), from Proto-Germanic *getan? (“to get”), from Proto-Indo-European *g?ed- (“to take, seize”). Cognate with Danish gisse (“to guess”), Norwegian gissa, gjette (“to guess”), Swedish gissa (“to guess”), Saterland Frisian gisje (“to guess”), Dutch gissen (“to guess”), Low German gissen (“to guess”). Related also to Icelandic giska ("to guess"; from Proto-Germanic *gitisk?n?). Compare also Russian ??????? (gadát?, “to conjecture, guess, divine”), Albanian gjëzë (“riddle”) from gjej (“find, recover, obtain”). More at get.

Verb

guess (third-person singular simple present guesses, present participle guessing, simple past and past participle guessed)

1. To reach a partly (or totally) unqualified conclusion.
2. To solve by a correct conjecture; to conjecture rightly.

3. (chiefly US) to suppose (introducing a proposition of uncertain plausibility).
   • 1714, Alexander Pope, Imitations of Horace

     But in known images of life I guess / The labour greater.
4. (colloquial) To think, conclude, or decide (without a connotation of uncertainty). Usually in first person: "I guess".

5. (obsolete) To hit upon or reproduce by memory.

Synonyms

• hypothesize
• take a stab
• speculate
• assume

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English gesse. Cognate with Dutch gis (“a guess”).

Noun

guess (plural guesses)

1. A prediction about the outcome of something, typically made without factual evidence or support.

   Synonyms: estimate, hypothesis, prediction

Derived terms

Translations

Further reading

• guess in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• guess in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• Guses