Is “complete conjecture” an oxymoron?

I use these two words together fairly often as it has a nicer ring to it than “conjecture” on its own, but it recently occurred to me that it may make no sense at all. Thoughts?

Solution 1:

Oxymoron works on the concept of contradiction and opposition. I believe that the phrase 'complete conjecture' is not an oxymoron because the meaning of 'conjecture' does not incorporate completeness or incompleteness and, therefore, the term 'complete' is not exerting any contradictory meaning to 'conjecture'.

Solution 2:

• This is a complete nightmare / guess and

• He's a complete idiot

use 'complete' to emphasise, with synonyms 'total', 'utter'. From Cambridge Dictionary:

complete [adjective] (very great) B1 [before noun]

very great or to the largest degree possible:

• The man's a complete fool!

However, the more usual sense of complete is 'fully comprehensive / whole / entire / missing no parts'

complete adjective (WHOLE) containing all the parts or pieces; whole:

• a complete set of dishes
• the complete works of Dickens
• We wanted a complete record of what everyone said.

[again from CED]

The problem with using the expression 'a complete conjecture' is that it is indeterminate; which sense of 'complete' is intended?

The 'comprehensive' sense is used with conceptual nouns, for instance in Is Populism an Ideology? A Refutation and a New Perspective Paris Aslanidis 2015 [Political Studies Association] we find

... of ideology to prove that populism is not a complete ideology by any established measure. Most scholars of populism refrain from asserting ...

And 'complete theory' is a well-defined term.

Whether 'complete' in this sense is also applied to 'conjecture', say with the Goldbach Conjecture, is possibly a matter for mathematicians.

Although it could be argued that 'This is a complete conjecture' could usually be inferred to be synonymous with 'This is a complete shot in the dark' from context, it could also be argued (and I'd be with this) that this is an unfortunate mixing of registers. I'd avoid it. But there's no paradox involved with the 'nothing more than', 'This is a total guess / conjecture' reading (though as I say, I'd choose a lower-register synonym).