Chinese word

猜

Pronunciation

Pinyincāi

Meaning

  • verbguess

Example

你猜他几岁？nǐ cāi tā jǐ suì

Guess how old he is?

Illustration for 猜 (guess)

More examples

他看起来很年轻，我猜他不到二十岁。tā kàn qǐ lái hěn nián qīng wǒ cāi tā bú dào èr shí suì

He looks young, so I guess he is under twenty.

Core concept

A tentative answer drawn from signs, experience, or a hunch, with room for being right or wrong.

Common phrases

  • 猜年龄cāi nián líng

    guess someone's age

  • 猜错cāi cuò

    guess wrong

  • 猜出答案cāi chū dá àn

    guess the answer

Similar words

推测tuī cè: Infer a possible conclusion from known facts and logical reasoning.
预测yù cè: Judge in advance what result or change will happen in the future.
估计gū jì: Judge the approximate number, amount, or degree from available information and circumstances.
猜测cāi cè: Try to identify a fact or cause from incomplete information.

Definition in Chinese

用已有线索或经验推测未知情况，给出可能的答案或估计。yòng yí yǒu xiàn suǒ huò jīng yàn tuī cè wèi zhī qíng kuàng gěi chū kě néng de dá àn huò gū jì

Word origin

猜 (cāi, "guess") combines 犭 (quǎn, "animal radical"), which marks the semantic side, with 青 (qīng, "blue-green"), which mainly supplies the pronunciation.

Usage tips

  • In conversation, this verb often creates a light guessing game or invites a tentative answer, so its tone can be playful rather than a firm claim.

Other meanings

  • predictverb
  • conjectureverb

Opposites

Related words

Word lists with this word