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All words

noun

inference

CEFR B2

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

In a sentence

Six example sentences with inference, each labelled with its topic.

  • The prosecutor never produced a witness, resting instead on an inference built from receipts, phone records, and a missing car.

    Law

  • No one saw the fall, so the doctor's inference rested on the bruise pattern and the cracked eyeglasses on the floor.

    Medicine

  • Astronomers never photographed the planet; its existence is an inference from the tiny wobble it imposes on its parent star.

    Science

  • Reading a face is an inference, not an observation: we see the raised brow and conclude surprise.

    Psychology

  • The analyst's inference that the firm was hiding losses came from the gap between reported profit and actual cash.

    Finance

  • Historians make an inference about the town's population from grain receipts, since no census of the period survives.

    History

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Found in these word lists

Each source is a published word list that contains inference. No exam board publishes an official GRE, GMAT or SAT list; GMAT words come from GRE lists and the Academic Word List.

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