mutmaßen

German

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Middle High German muotmāȥen, a verbal formation from muotmāȥe. Synchronically analyzed as Mut (courage, mood) +‎ messen (to measure).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈmuːtˌmaːsən/, [ˈmuːtˌmaːsn̩]
  • Audio (Germany (Berlin)):(file)
  • Hyphenation: mut‧ma‧ßen

Verb

mutmaßen (weak, third-person singular present mutmaßt, past tense mutmaßte, past participle gemutmaßt, auxiliary haben) (intransitive or transitive, chiefly with clauses)

  1. (intransitive) to guess, to speculate
    Synonyms: spekulieren, raten, Mutmaßungen anstellen
    Es bleibt daher nichts anderes übrig, als zu mutmaßen.
    So there's nothing to be done except speculating.
  2. (transitive, chiefly with clauses) to speculate, to assume, to suspect (an explanation or claim)
    Synonyms: vermuten, annehmen, spekulieren
    Er mutmaßt, dass es so gewesen ist.
    He is speculating that that was the case.

Conjugation

Derived terms

Further reading