speculative

adjective

spec·u·la·tive ˈspe-kyə-lə-tiv

-ˌlā-

Synonyms of speculative next

: involving, based on, or constituting intellectual speculation

also : theoretical rather than demonstrable

speculative knowledge

: marked by questioning curiosity

gave him a speculative glance

: of, relating to, or being a financial speculation

speculative stocks

speculative venture

speculatively adverb

Example Sentences

His conclusions are highly speculative. a writer with a speculative mind a speculative boom in housing construction

Recent Examples on the Web Developer Hillwood is planning to start construction this summer on two more speculative warehouses. —

Steve Brown, Dallas News, 16 May 2023 Four months from the Ravens’ season opener, 2023 predictions are almost entirely speculative. —

Brian Wacker, Baltimore Sun, 15 May 2023 Her 1993 novel Parable of the Sower is speculative fiction depicting 2024 as a year plagued with climate change and social inequality. —

Shantay Robinson, Smithsonian Magazine, 11 May 2023 The market has seen strong gains for the past three sessions consecutively, so analysts say today’s decline may also be the result of profit-taking from speculative investors. —

wsj.com, 10 May 2023 Two coins in particular—one featuring alt-Right troll meme Pepe the Frog and the other based on SpongeBob SquarePants—are having a huge speculative boom and their increased trading volume is gumming up the works. —

Justin Ray, Robb Report, 10 May 2023 Refusing to give up real cash for a speculative benefit doesn’t strike me as so appalling. —

Kwame Anthony Appiah, New York Times, 10 May 2023 Its subsequent repeal in 1999 helped create institutes that became too big to fail, encouraging bankers to make speculative bets in the belief the government would use taxpayer money to bail them out when things go wrong, critics say. —

Christiaan Hetzner, Fortune, 8 May 2023 Although this theory is currently speculative, the team hopes this study shows that the energy metabolism of cold-water elasmobranchs needs to be studied at lower levels of biological organization (the molecular, organellar, cellular, and tissue levels) than the whole-organism level. —

Melissa Cristina Márquez, Forbes, 7 May 2023 See More

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'speculative.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.