Dictionary.com
Thesaurus.com
Showing results for guesstimate. Search instead for guesstimates.
Synonyms

guesstimate

American  
[ges-tuh-meyt, ges-tuh-mit, -meyt] / ˈgɛs təˌmeɪt, ˈgɛs tə mɪt, -ˌmeɪt /
Or guestimate

verb (used with object)

guesstimated, guesstimating
  1. to estimate without substantial basis in facts or statistics.


noun

  1. an estimate arrived at by guesswork.

guesstimate British  

noun

  1. an estimate calculated mainly or only by guesswork

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

verb

  1. to form a guesstimate of

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of guesstimate

1935–40, blend of guess and estimate

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

By my guesstimate, that was legal up until Malcolm was 22?

From Los Angeles Times Dec. 12, 2024

Our leading hypothesis is that phages use CtrA to guesstimate when there will be enough bacteria nearby sporting pili and flagella that they can readily infect.

From Salon Sep. 21, 2022

“It was a guesstimate, a very rough guesstimate,” Oathes says.

From Slate Sep. 13, 2022

One early guesstimate located the heliopause as close as Jupiter.

From Scientific American Jun. 16, 2022

He said the figure of 300,000 troops in the security forces was a guesstimate because of the many so-called ghost soldiers, where commanders list non-existent personnel to collect their paychecks.

From Seattle Times May 26, 2021

Earlier this year, Forbes guesstimated Diddy was the richest man in hip-hop, with a net worth around $820 million.

From Los Angeles Times Dec. 18, 2017

The theft of industrial and trade secrets has been referred to as the single largest loss of American wealth, guesstimated in the hundreds of billions of dollars a year.

From Slate Sep. 11, 2016

The academic later "guesstimated" the Scottish cost could be between £150m and £200m - a suggestion Mr Salmond agreed with.

From BBC May 29, 2014

He guesstimated that the installation would set him back about $2,400.

From BusinessWeek Dec. 29, 2010

Drop in switch, fakie, or backward, and be confident with your "guesstimated" speed.

From Time Magazine Archive

But not everyone completes it, she said: "Oftentimes, we have to still do some guesstimating."

From Salon May 15, 2022

But I'm not great at guesstimating time right now because it's not real.

From BBC Jan. 16, 2021

But for now, Kaiser is guesstimating their numbers have held above 2 million.

From Slate Jan. 6, 2020

The methods for guesstimating carbohydrate intake also seemed imprecise, Mr. Costik found, and the process generated a lot of wasted data.

From New York Times Feb. 22, 2016

As a result, the Fed's policy of "data dependence" may turn out to involve a good bit of guesstimating, with each Fed official playing their own hunch about where the economy really stands.

From Reuters Jun. 24, 2015

Vocabulary.com logo
by dictionary.com

Dictionary.com's Learning Companion

Go beyond just looking up words.
Remember them forever with VocabTrainer.

Start training