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infer Definition

in·fer (in fʉr′)

transitive verb -·ferred′, -·fer′·ring

  1. Obsolete to bring on or about; cause; induce
  2. to conclude or decide from something known or assumed; derive by reasoning; draw as a conclusion
    1. to lead to as a conclusion; indicate
    2. to indicate indirectly; imply: in this sense, still sometimes regarded as a loose usage

Etymology: L inferre, to bring or carry in, infer < in-, in + ferre, to carry, bear

intransitive verb

to draw inferences

infer Related Forms
in·fer′·able adjective in′·fer·ably adverb in·fer′·rer noun
infer Synonyms

infer

v.

  1. To reach a conclusion

    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

    suppose, presume, presuppose; see assume 1.

  3. To imply

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

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 concludeI gather that you don't care

infer Usage Examples

Object

  • existence: Somewhere between these two extremes we can infer the existence of a margin.
  • meaning: More advanced learners might enjoy identifying register and reading between the lines to infer meaning.
  • competence: To be useful, competence inferred must be greater than performance observed.
  • conclusion: It is easy to visualize and infer conclusions from 2D data.
  • distribution: The ice thickness distribution inferred using remote sensing techniques.
  • relationship: In these instances the inferred relationship is shown in square brackets thus: [ s ] .

Used with why or when

  • that: If you inferred that was my definition of insurgent, then I apologize for not being clearer.
  • which: If one is to infer which variable affects which, there must be a theory that explains the relationship between the two variables.
  • what: The Panel should not be expected to infer what should be made explicit.

Modifying Another Word

  • indirectly: Actually the " flow " is far too slow to measure; it has to be inferred indirectly from theory.
  • safely: The goods and marks being the same misrepresentation and damage could be safely inferred.
  • reasonably: We may reasonably infer that someone of importance was buried here.
  • correctly: Yes, people may correctly infer that praise for my batting is unlikely.. .
  • readily: What a competent practitioner can infer readily from a task, problem or scenario.
  • automatically: However, it is important to realize that this automatically inferred information may only be approximate ( or may even be quite wrong!

Preposition: from

  • observation: Its existence has been inferred from observations of long period comets.
  • measurement: The data admit at a 0.6 standard deviation level the parameters of non-Newtonian gravity inferred from geophysical measurements in mines and a tower.
  • fact: To infer from the fact of Mary being a special object of divine favor that she is therefore sinless is absurd.
  • sequence: In essence the networks are being inferred from the raw DNA sequence themselves.
  • datum: This poorly known basin is only inferred from gravity data.