Suggesting or indicating something indirectly without explicitly stating it. Expressing meaning through inference rather than direct statement.
From Latin implicare 'to enfold, involve', from in- 'in' + plicare 'to fold'. The sense of 'suggest indirectly' developed from the idea of meaning being 'folded within' words.
The difference between implying and inferring is that speakers imply (suggest meaning) while listeners infer (deduce meaning). It's one of the most commonly confused word pairs in English.
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