surmising

verb

present participle of surmise
as in guessing
to form an opinion from little or no evidence we surmised that she had purchased the apple pie since there was a bakery box on the kitchen counter

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of surmising During this period, this Simpsons episode circulated on social media (with a few digital modifications), with various media outlets surmising that the series had predicted these events. — Dan Snierson, Entertainment Weekly, 16 June 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for surmising
  1. guessing
  2. assuming
  3. supposing
  4. suspecting
  5. speculating
Verb
  • Then, just to keep us guessing, Pugh attended a press event at New York’s Paley Center in an ethereal all-white Erdem gown, a personification of symbolic innocence.
    — Oscar Holland, CNN Money, 2 Oct. 2026
  • Booking Holdings’ chief financial officer thinks the companies spending the most on artificial intelligence are guessing.
    — Nick Lichtenberg, Fortune, 2 Oct. 2026
Definition of guessing
Verb
  • Skydance will have a mountain of debt, projected to be north of $80 billion, after assuming the debt burdens of previous M&A incurred by Paramount and WBD and raising new debt financing.
    — Todd Spangler, Variety, 2 Oct. 2026
  • In my hypothetical example, his 2026 fortune falls from $908 billion reported by Forbes to about $317 billion in my counterfactual 10 percent wealth tax example (again, assuming his wealth over the past 10 years grew smoothly).
    — Jeff Hoopes, Washington Post, 1 Oct. 2026
Definition of assuming
Verb
  • More recently, other experts have advised American farmers to go all out growing soybeans, supposing they will be needed by the Chinese or somebody.
    — Cynthia Zarin, Harpers Magazine, 4 Aug. 2026
  • Even supposing the pledges in the 1990s documents amounted to a crime, the legal deadline for bringing mortgage fraud charges has expired.
    — Aysha Bagchi, USA Today, 8 Dec. 2025
Definition of supposing
Verb
  • Legal experts say that bail is rarely given where there are serious grounds for suspecting terrorism offenses.
    — Kara Fox, CNN Money, 30 Sep. 2026
  • From then on, maybe suspecting his daughters of foul play, Andrew kept the doors to his room locked — both the one that opened out into the stairs and the one connecting his room to Lizzie’s.
    — Rafaela Bassili, Vulture, 18 Sep. 2026
Definition of suspecting
Verb
  • The industry is obsessively speculating on who survives the merger to be named to David Ellison‘s executive leadership team come Monday.
    — Angelique Jackson, Variety, 2 Oct. 2026
  • And like Farrar’s Twitter character, dangling on that final, hopeful comma, the president’s critics still return to speculating that this next scandal might just be the one that delivers comeuppance.
    — David Mack, CNN Money, 1 Oct. 2026
Definition of speculating

Browse Nearby Words

surmises
surmising
surmount
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Surmising.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/surmising. Accessed 9 Oct. 2026.

Copy Citation
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

Do You Need a New Language Peeve?

The Exceptions of '-s' and '-es' Plurals

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

Is it 'nerve-racking' or 'nerve-wracking'?

What's the difference between 'fascism' and 'socialism'?
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

The Real Origin of 'Supercalifragilistic'

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

7 Words for Bad Endings and Rough Situations

The Words of the Week - Oct. 9

Even More Bird Names that Sound Like Insults (and Sometimes Are)
See More

Popular

See More

Do You Need a New Language Peeve?

The Real Origin of 'Supercalifragilistic'

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
a cup of tea and a golf ball on tee side by side
Quiz: Sounds Like... Choose the word that sounds like it fits the clue...
See All