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Glite Dictionary
💬 To suggest ➡️ To mean as result
to imply

to imply

225 4.1
Show that one thing must be true if another is true
  • verb
  • /ɪmˈplaɪ/
translation icon : implicar
  • In principle, they recognize that this implies a need for closer international cooperation.
  • necessarily imply
  • imply the existence
  • findings imply

Just simply having lots of people around doesn't imply intimacy and closeness.

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Examples

  • The sudden drop in temperature implies that a storm is coming.

  • This implies a bond.

    Wasted Hours (2018)

  • I think the course of history would imply that, yeah, we do.

  • A doubt would imply that I ever wanted this responsibility.

    Father Stu (2022)

  • OK, so that implies that for all X.

  • So this condition here implies this condition here.

  • So to think about being in A implies that you are in B.

    Numberphile

  • Can you imagine what that implies?

    Saw X (2023)

  • That certainly seems to be the aspiration implied by the organization's name.

    Aliens at the Pentagon (2018)

  • Their large number and the gold on which they are stamped imply that they were culturally significant.

    Academic text (1999)

Synonyms

to mean
vsto imply
∞ 3.5

Lead to a particular result

is about necessary logical consequence rather than possible or causal outcome
to entail
vsto imply
82 4.8

To involve something as a necessary part

is used to state that one thing logically follows as a necessary result

Surface Forms

imply infinitive
implying present participle
implies third person singular
implied past
implied past participle

Morphology

imply = ply (opaque) = im + ply + im

The logical/entailment sense ('to imply that X follows') is not transparent from the surface components to an average learner.

Etymology

Imply in the logical sense comes from the same Latin parts in- ('in') and plicare ('to fold'), where one thing 'folds in' or contains another. In logic, saying 'p' implies 'q' means that if 'p' is true it 'contains' or requires 'q' to be true. That's why this use of imply means a necessary result, not just a hint.