suggest

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English

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Etymology

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Coined based onLatinsuggestus,perfect passive participle ofsuggerō(“bring up, bring under, lay beneath, furnish, supply, excite, advise, suggest”,verb),fromsub(“from below, under”)+gerō(“bear, carry”,verb).

Pronunciation

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Verb

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suggest(third-person singular simple presentsuggests,present participlesuggesting,simple past and past participlesuggested)

  1. (transitive)Toimplybut stop short ofexplicitlystating (something).
    Are yousuggestingthat I killed my wife?
  2. (transitive)To cause one tosuppose(something); to bring to one's mind the idea (of something).
    The name "hamburger"suggeststhat hamburgers originated from Hamburg.
    • 1689(indicated as1690),[John Locke],An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding.[…],London:[…]Eliz[abeth]Holt, for Thomas Basset,[…],→OCLC:
      ,Book II, Chapter III
      Some ideas[…]aresuggestedto the mind by all the ways of sensation and reflection.
    • 2012May 24, Nathan Rabin, “Film: Reviews: Men In Black 3”,inThe Onion AV Club:
      In the abstract, Stuhlbarg’s twinkly-eyed sidekicksuggestsJoe Pesci in Lethal Weapon 2 by way of late-period Robin Williams with an alien twist, but Stuhlbarg makes a character that easily could have come across as precious into a surprisingly palatable, even charming man.
    • 2013August 16,Sarah Boseley,“Children shun vegetables and fruit”,inThe Guardian Weekly,volume189,number10,page15:
      The [British Heart Foundation's] data […]suggeststhere has been little improvement in eating, drinking and exercise habits in spite of the concern about obesity and the launch of the government's child measurement programme, which warns parents if their children are overweight. About a third of under-16s across the UK are either overweight or obese.
  3. (transitive)To explicitlymention(something) as a possibility for consideration, often torecommendit
    Hesuggeststhat we celebrate with dinner at Bellissimo. Hesuggestsour celebrating with dinner at Bellissimo.
    The guidebooksuggeststhat we visit the local cathedral, which is apparently beautiful.
    • 2011December 14, Angelique Chrisafis, “Rachida Dati accuses French PM of sexism and elitism”,inGuardian:
      But Rachida Dati has now turned on her own party elite with such ferocity that some havesuggestedshe should be expelled from the president's ruling party.
    • 1918,W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell,chapter XIX, inThe Mirror and the Lamp,Indianapolis, Ind.:The Bobbs-Merrill Company,→OCLC:
      Nothing was too small to receive attention, if a supervising eye couldsuggestimprovements likely to conduce to the common welfare. Mr. Gordon Burnage, for instance, personally visited dust-bins and back premises, accompanied by a sort of village bailiff, going his round like a commanding officer doing billets.
  4. (obsolete,transitive)Toseduce;to prompt to evil; totempt.

Usage notes

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  • 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 schooloperatesdifferently” 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 schooloperatedifferently” 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 amandative subjunctive,shouldmay 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 schoolshould operatedifferently”.
  • This verb can be usedcatenatively,in which case it takes agerund(the form ending in-ing) as its object. SeeAppendix:English catenative verbs.

Synonyms

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Derived terms

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Translations

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Translations to be checked

See also

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Further reading

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