different between guess vs augury

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

English

Etymology

augur +? -y, or from Middle English augurie, from Old French augurie, from Latin augurium.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /???.?j?.?i/

Noun

augury (countable and uncountable, plural auguries)

1. A divination based on the appearance and behaviour of animals.
2. (by extension) An omen or prediction; a foreboding; a prophecy.
   • 1850, James Russell Lowell, The Works of the Late Edgar Allan Poe/Volume 1/Edgar A. Poe

     In Wordsworth's first preludings there is but a dim foreboding of the creator of an era. From Southey's early poems, a safer augury might have been drawn.

   • 1859, George Meredith, The Ordeal of Richard Feverel, Chapter 15:

     No augury could be hopefuller. The Fates must indeed be hard, the Ordeal severe, the Destiny dark, that could destroy so bright a Spring!

3. An event that is experienced as indicating important things to come.

Quotations

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:augury.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:omen

Hyponyms

Related terms

• augur

Translations