Surmise vs Presume - What's the difference?
surmise | presume |
Thought, imagination, or conjecture, which may be based upon feeble or scanty evidence; suspicion; guess.
* Jonathan Swift
* 1919 ,
Reflection; thought; posit.
To conjecture, to opine or to posit with contestable premises.
With infinitive object: to be so presumptuous as (to do something) without proper authority or permission.
To assume to be true (without proof); to take for granted, to suppose.
* 2011 , John Patterson, The Guardian , 5 Feb 2011:
To be presumptuous; with (on), (upon), to take advantage (of), to take liberties (with).
* 1994 , Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom , Abacus 2010, p. 75:
As verbs the difference between surmise and presume
is that surmise is to conjecture, to opine or to posit with contestable premises while presume is to perform, do (something) without authority; to lay claim to without permission.As a noun surmise
is thought, imagination, or conjecture, which may be based upon feeble or scanty evidence; suspicion; guess.surmise
English
Noun
(en noun)- surmises of jealousy or of envy
- No man ought to be charged with principles he actually disowns, unless his practices contradict his profession; not upon small surmises .
- The meeting had been devoid of incident. No word had been said to give me anything to think about, and any surmises I might make were unwarranted. I was intrigued.
- (Shakespeare)
Verb
(surmis)External links
* * ----presume
English
Alternative forms
* (archaic)Verb
(presum)- Don't make the decision yourself and presume too much.
- I wouldn't presume to tell him how to do his job.
- If we presume that human cloning may one day become a mundane, everyday reality, then maybe it's time to start thinking more positively about our soon-to-arrive genetically engineered pseudo-siblings.
- Piliso then vented his anger on us, accusing us of lying to him. He said we had presumed on his hospitality and the good name of the regent.