Inference
Etymology
From Latin "inferre," "to bring in" or "to carry in," from "in," "in," and "ferre," "to carry" or "to bring." The image is of carrying a conclusion in from the premises you already hold. English kept that sense precisely: an inference is something you bring into your beliefs on the strength of what you had, not something handed to you directly by the world.
noun · /IN-fur-unss/
A conclusion reached on the basis of evidence and reasoning rather than direct observation.
What it names
The leap from what you can see to what you can’t — the step where most reasoning either earns its conclusion or quietly overreaches.
Example
We never saw the deal collapse, but from the sudden silence the inference was hard to avoid.
Related idea
An inference draws a new conclusion from evidence; a conjecture is an inference offered tentatively, a guess floated in the absence of enough evidence to settle it.