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Synonyms

guesswork

American  
[ges-wurk] / ˈgɛsˌwɜrk /

noun

  1. work or procedure based on or consisting of the making of guesses or conjectures.


guesswork British  
/ ˈɡɛsˌwɜːk /

noun

  1. a set of conclusions, estimates, etc, arrived at by guessing

  2. the process of making guesses

"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 guesswork

First recorded in 1715–25; guess + work

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:

Our five-week email course is designed to take the guesswork and anxiety out of developing contacts into relationships.

From The Wall Street Journal Aug. 4, 2026

While salary-transparency laws don’t necessarily guarantee you’ll receive the highest possible salary, they do remove much of the guesswork from negotiations — and experts say that alone gives job seekers a stronger hand.

From MarketWatch Jul. 22, 2026

"After 160 years of getting it wrong, this paper corrects this very important feature based not on guesswork, but on empirical evidence."

From Science Daily Apr. 24, 2026

Without that, fertiliser application is guesswork, not farming.

From BBC Feb. 19, 2026

The pictures would provide the answer, she reasoned; there was no need for guesswork.

From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee

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