The word 猜想 is formed by combining two characters, each contributing a layer of meaning to create a new, unified concept. The first character, 猜 (cāi), carries the core idea of "to guess" or "to suspect". The second character, 想 (xiǎng), means "to think" or "to ponder". Their combination is not merely additive but synergistic, where 想 intensifies and internalizes the action of 猜, resulting in the nuanced meaning of "to conjecture" or "to speculate", essentially, a thoughtful guess or a hypothesis formed through mental deduction.