Devinée

Devinée is the feminine singular past participle of the French verb deviner, meaning to guess or to divine. In usage, devinée functions as an adjective describing something that has been guessed or inferred, and it can also appear in compound tenses with the auxiliary avoir, where it agrees with a preceding direct object. For example, une réponse devinée denotes a response that was guessed or inferred; les réponses que j'ai devinées shows agreement with the feminine plural noun.

Etymology and meaning: devinée derives from Old French deviner, itself from Latin divinare “to divine,” related to divinus “divine” or prophetic. The sense has broadened from foretelling or divination to guessing, deducing, or inferring in ordinary language.

Usage notes: The verb deviner often conveys probability, intuition, or partial knowledge rather than certainty. The corresponding noun is usually devinette, which refers to a riddle, not to a guess. In literary or descriptive writing, devinée can emphasize a guessed or inferred quality of a statement or conclusion, rather than a firm fact.

See also: deviner, devinette, divination.