INFERENCE

Pronunciation (US): (GB):

I. (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The reasoning involved in drawing a conclusion or making a logical judgment on the basis of circumstantial evidence and prior conclusions rather than on the basis of direct observation

Synonyms:

illation; inference

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Hypernyms ("inference" is a kind of...):

abstract thought; logical thinking; reasoning (thinking that is coherent and logical)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "inference"):

analogy (an inference that if things agree in some respects they probably agree in others)

corollary ((logic) an inference that follows directly from the proof of another proposition)

derivation (a line of reasoning that shows how a conclusion follows logically from accepted propositions)

deduction; entailment; implication (something that is inferred (deduced or entailed or implied))

extrapolation (an inference about the future (or about some hypothetical situation) based on known facts and observations)

presumption ((law) an inference of the truth of a fact from other facts proved or admitted or judicially noticed)

Derivation:

infer (reason by deduction; establish by deduction)

infer (conclude by reasoning; in logic)

infer (draw from specific cases for more general cases)

inferential (derived or capable of being derived by inference)

inferential (resembling or dependent on or arrived at by inference)

inferential (relating to or having the nature of illation or inference)

Credits

Context examples:

Two inferences, however, were plainly deduced from the whole: one, that Elizabeth was the real cause of the mischief; and the other that she herself had been barbarously misused by them all; and on these two points she principally dwelt during the rest of the day.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

With Tuesday came the agreeable prospect of seeing him again, and for a longer time than hitherto; of judging of his general manners, and by inference, of the meaning of his manners towards herself; of guessing how soon it might be necessary for her to throw coldness into her air; and of fancying what the observations of all those might be, who were now seeing them together for the first time.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

He and his colleagues argue that direct evidence in the form of teeth, bones and artifacts associated with the burial, as well as inferences from the evidence as to what time of year the children died and were buried, could lead to new thinking about how early societies were structured, how they viewed death and the importance of rituals associated with death and what stresses they faced in trying to survive.

(Archaeologists discover remains of Ice-Age infants in Alaska, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

I felt the truth of these words; and I drew from them the certain inference, that if I were so far to forget myself and all the teaching that had ever been instilled into me, as—under any pretext—with any justification—through any temptation—to become the successor of these poor girls, he would one day regard me with the same feeling which now in his mind desecrated their memory.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

You are too timid in drawing your inferences.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

We were simply there to observe and to draw inferences from our observations.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It would be difficult to name any articles which afford a finer field for inference than a pair of glasses, especially so remarkable a pair as these.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Not by word, or inference, or implication; not at any time whilst this remains to me! and she solemnly pointed to the scar.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

I only quote this as a trivial example of observation and inference.