suggest

English Online Dictionary. What means suggest‎? What does suggest mean?

English

Etymology

Coined based on Latin suggestus, perfect passive participle of suggerō (“bring up, bring under, lay beneath, furnish, supply, excite, advise, suggest”, verb), from sub (“from below, under”) + gerō (“bear, carry”, verb).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /səˈd͡ʒɛst/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /sə(ɡ)ˈd͡ʒɛst/
• Rhymes: -ɛst

Verb

suggest (third-person singular simple present suggests, present participle suggesting, simple past and past participle suggested)

1. (transitive) To imply but stop short of explicitly stating (something).

2. (transitive) To cause one to suppose (something); to bring to one's mind the idea (of something).
   • , Book II, Chapter III

     Some ideas […] are suggested to the mind by all the ways of sensation and reflection.
3. (transitive) To explicitly mention (something) as a possibility for consideration, often to recommend it
4. (obsolete, transitive) To seduce; to prompt to evil; to tempt.

Usage notes

• This verb can take a finite clause as its object, which uses the indicative mood in the first and second senses, but the subjunctive mood in the third sense: “The researcher's work suggests that this school operates differently” means that the research results are more consistent with this school being run differently from the way under discussion than with it being so run, while “The researcher's work suggests that this school operate differently” means that the researcher recommends changing how this school is run. (However, in informal British English, the indicative is often used for all senses.) As a mandative subjunctive, should may be included in the construction, which can prevent ambiguity when the indicative and subjunctive would be identical without it: “The researcher's work suggests that this school should operate differently”. However, should is not used in direct speech.
• This verb can be used catenatively, in which case it takes a gerund (the form ending in -ing) as its object. See Appendix:English catenative verbs.

Synonyms

• (imply but stop short of explicitly stating): allude, hint, imply, insinuate
• (bring to mind): evoke
• (explicitly mention for consideration): propose, float, bring up, moot,
• See also Thesaurus:advise

Derived terms

• suggest itself
• suggestion
• suggestive
• suggestible

Translations

See also

• Suggestion on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Further reading

• “suggest”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “suggest”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “suggest”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.