According to the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary
Imply
1. To involve by logical necessity; entail: Life implies growth and death.
2. To express or indicate indirectly: His tone implied disapproval.
3. Obsolete. To entangle.
Infer
1. To conclude from evidence or premises.
2. To reason from circumstance; surmise: We can infer that his motive in publishing the diary was less than honorable.
3. To lead to as a consequence or conclusion: Socrates argued that a statue inferred the existence of a sculptor.
4. To hint; imply.
Infer is sometimes confused with imply, but the difference is a helpful one. When we say that a speaker or sentence implies something, we mean that it is conveyed or suggested without being stated outright: Randi said she was going to stop by today to drop off the shirt she borrow last week during which she implied that she might want to barrow the skirt that matched it.
Inference, on the other hand, is the activity performed by a reader or interpreter in drawing conclusions that are not explicit in what is said: Randi said she was going to stop by to drop the shirt off she borrow and mentioned the skirted that matched would look great for this weekend; I quickly inferred that she wanted to barrow the whole outfit this time around. Sir Thomas More is the first writers known to have used both infer and imply in their approved senses in 1528.
Imply
1. To involve by logical necessity; entail: Life implies growth and death.
2. To express or indicate indirectly: His tone implied disapproval.
3. Obsolete. To entangle.
Infer
1. To conclude from evidence or premises.
2. To reason from circumstance; surmise: We can infer that his motive in publishing the diary was less than honorable.
3. To lead to as a consequence or conclusion: Socrates argued that a statue inferred the existence of a sculptor.
4. To hint; imply.
Infer is sometimes confused with imply, but the difference is a helpful one. When we say that a speaker or sentence implies something, we mean that it is conveyed or suggested without being stated outright: Randi said she was going to stop by today to drop off the shirt she borrow last week during which she implied that she might want to barrow the skirt that matched it.
Inference, on the other hand, is the activity performed by a reader or interpreter in drawing conclusions that are not explicit in what is said: Randi said she was going to stop by to drop the shirt off she borrow and mentioned the skirted that matched would look great for this weekend; I quickly inferred that she wanted to barrow the whole outfit this time around. Sir Thomas More is the first writers known to have used both infer and imply in their approved senses in 1528.
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