imply

Etymology

Definitions

1. 1

   To have as a necessary consequence

   To have as a necessary consequence; to lead to (something) as a consequence.

   • Correlation does not imply causation
   • The proposition that "all dogs are mammals" implies that my dog is a mammal.
   • Our upper bound is the best possible, and it implies the existence of low-rank factorizations of positive semidefinite bivariate matrix polynomials and representations of biforms as sums of few squares.
2. 2

   To suggest by logical inference.

   • When I state that your dog is brown, I am not implying that all dogs are brown.
3. 3

   To hint

   To hint; to insinuate; to suggest tacitly and avoid a direct statement.

   • What do you mean "we need to be more careful with hygiene"? Are you implying that I don't wash my hands?
   • The wrongminded notion of the feminist movement which implied it was anti-male carried with it the wrongminded assumption that all female space would necessarily be an environment where patriarchy and sexist thinking would be absent.
   • Naturally, the river wasn't wrinkled or creased at all— wrong words, implying something unfluid like skin, something unenduring, prey to age.
4. ›+ 2 more definitionsshow fewer

   1. 4

      To enfold, entangle.

      • And in his bosome secretly there lay / An hatefull Snake, the which his taile vptyes / In many folds, and mortall sting implyes.
   2. 5

      A logic gate that implements material implication.

The neighborhood

• antonymNIMPLY
• neighborimplicate
• neighborimplication
• neighborimplicative
• neighborimplicit
• neighborimplicitness
• neighborconnotation
• neighborentail