verb · academic
infer
UK/ɪnˈfɜː(r)/US/ɪnˈfɝː/in·FER
to draw a conclusion from evidence or information
Examples
“From the survey results, we can infer that students prefer online lessons.”
“You shouldn't infer someone's opinion just from one comment.”
“Readers often infer themes that the author never states explicitly.”
Band 8 sentence
“From longitudinal data on earnings and education, we can reasonably infer a causal relationship, though more experimental work is needed.”
Collocations
- infer from
- be inferred (from)
Word family
Common mistakes
They inferred that he guilty.→They inferred that he was guilty.
From the data we can infer to a trend.→From the data we can infer a trend.
The author inferred that students should study more.→The author implied that students should study more.
Say it for a higher band
5guess→6assume→7+infer
Synonyms
deduce
conclude
Easily confused
imply
“The author implied that policy changes were needed.”
Related words
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