inference

«inference» in Mova's judaism dictionary: An idea or answer you work out from clues or facts, not… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (an inference, inferences)

meaning for a pupil

1) An idea or answer you work out from clues or facts, not from being told directly. tree →

2) The act of working something out from what you already know. tree →

3) (formal, maths and science) A conclusion drawn from data or from a set of statements by careful reasoning. tree →

sense in the lessons

In reading lessons pupils "make an inference" about how a character feels from clues in the text. In science an inference goes beyond what you saw: you see wet ground and infer it rained. In maths and statistics an inference is a conclusion drawn from data. Phrases: make an inference, draw an inference, by inference.

examples

• As al- ready demonstrated, the lirst alphabet invented was similar to that still used by the Berbers, whence the inference, that there may have been a time when the Hebrews also used such an alphabet. (Mordell, The Origin of Letters and Numerals according to Sefer Yetzirah (1914)) tree →
• From the muddy boots, my inference was that Dad had been in the garden. tree →
• Our teacher asked us to make an inference about why the boy was crying. tree →
• The detective's inference was right: the thief had a key. tree →
• You saw smoke, so the inference is that something is burning. tree →
• It is only an inference, not a fact, so check it. tree →
• The report draws an inference from the survey data (formal). tree →
• By inference, the missing number must be bigger than ten. tree →

note

Countable noun: an inference, two inferences. Verb: infer (infer, infers, inferred, inferring). Trap: an observation is what you see; an inference is what you decide it means. Do not confuse "infer" (the listener works it out) with "imply" (the speaker hints it). In word problems, an inference is a fact the problem does not state but you must work out.

In the corpora

• Inference means working out what the writer means but does not say.
• An inference must fit ALL the clues, not just one.
• Inference means working out something the text suggests but does not say directly.
• A good inference gives the idea and the evidence: «She was angry because she slammed the door.»
• An inference must fit all the clues, not just one of them.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «inference» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.