Synonym Study

• Insinuate implies the subtle hinting of something disagreeable or of that which one lacks the courage to say outright are you insinuating that I am dishonest?
• Intimate suggests a making known obliquely by a very slight hint she only dared to intimate her feelings
• Hint connotes faint or indirect suggestion that is, however, intended to be understood he hinted that he would come
• Imply stresses a putting into the mind of something inherent in a word, remark, action, or situation, but not openly expressed, and suggests the need for inference the answer implied a refusal, her novels imply a belief that good triumphs over evil
• Suggest implies a putting of something into the mind either intentionally, as by way of a proposal I suggest you leave now, or unintentionally, as through association of ideas the smell of ether suggests a hospital