speculate

verb

spec·u·late | \ ˈspe-kyə-ˌlāt

speculated; speculating

Definition of speculate

1a : to meditate on or ponder a subject : reflect

b : to review something idly or casually and often inconclusively

2 : to assume a business risk in hope of gain especially : to buy or sell in expectation of profiting from market fluctuations

transitive verb

1 : to take to be true on the basis of insufficient evidence : theorize

2 : to be curious or doubtful about : wonder speculates whether it will rain all vacation

Other Words from speculate Synonyms Choose the Right Synonym Did You Know? More Example Sentences Learn More about speculate

Keep scrolling for more

Choose the Right Synonym for speculate

think, cogitate, reflect, reason, speculate, deliberate mean to use one's powers of conception, judgment, or inference. think is general and may apply to any mental activity, but used alone often suggests attainment of clear ideas or conclusions. teaches students how to think cogitate implies deep or intent thinking. cogitated on the mysteries of nature reflect suggests unhurried consideration of something recalled to the mind. reflecting on fifty years of married life reason stresses consecutive logical thinking. able to reason brilliantly in debate speculate implies reasoning about things theoretical or problematic. speculated on the fate of the lost explorers deliberate suggests slow or careful reasoning before forming an opinion or reaching a conclusion or decision. the jury deliberated for five hours

Did You Know?

Speculate was adopted into English in the late 16th century from Latin speculatus, the past participle of the verb speculari, which means "to spy out" or "to examine." Speculari, in turn, derives from specula, meaning "lookout post," and ultimately from the Latin verb specere, "to look (at)." Other conspicuous descendants of specere are inspect and suspect. Some less obvious descendants are the words despise, species, specimen, and, as you may have speculated, conspicuous.

Examples of speculate in a Sentence

She could only speculate about her friend's motives. He speculated as to whether she would come. We don't know what happened—we can only speculate. speculating on the stock market

Recent Examples on the Web

Regardless, the property is burdened by debt, and observers speculate that the asking price was inflated as much to help the owners refinance as to drive PR. — Alex Bhattacharji, Town & Country, "An Empty Lot Above Beverly Hills Is the Most Expensive Real Estate in the World," 17 Jan. 2019 Some gossip sites speculated wildly about the reasons for her pregnancy and her child's paternity. — Hanna Lustig, Teen Vogue, "Jamie Lynn Spears Claims the Real Reason Zoey 101 Ended Wasn't Pregnancy," 10 Jan. 2019 As soon as a Wall Street Journal story from earlier today suggested Amazon was thinking of splitting HQ2, some analysts speculated the company would choose New York City and D.C. — Patrick Sisson, Curbed, "Amazon HQ2 winner appears to be both New York and Crystal City, Virginia," 6 Nov. 2018 Turin speculates that a quantum effect called tunneling might be involved. — Tim Folger, Discover Magazine, "How Quantum Mechanics Lets Us See, Smell and Touch," 24 Oct. 2018 South Korean media speculated that Pompeo could make a third trip to Pyongyang and that Kim Yong Chol was carrying a personal letter from Kim Jong-un and might push to travel to Washington to meet with Trump. — The Christian Science Monitor, "Highest-level official North Korean visit to US in 18 years offers hope for summit," 31 May 2018 But some conspiracy theorists speculated that the exercise was a covert effort to institute martial law. — Cassandra Pollock And Alex Samuels, star-telegram, "Hysteria over Jade Helm exercise in Texas was fueled by Russians, former CIA director says | Fort Worth Star-Telegram," 3 May 2018 The pensive, seductive lyrics have some keen listeners speculating whether the track is about Abel's girlfriend Bella Hadid and perhaps even Drake. — Nicole Saunders, Harper's BAZAAR, "Fans Think The Weeknd Sings About Bella Hadid (and Disses Drake) on New Song "Lost in the Fire"," 11 Jan. 2019 Others have pointed out that Eleven and Mike are wearing the colors blue and yellow, which some speculated is symbolic of the Ukrainian flag. — Lauren Rearick, Glamour, "Stranger Things Fans Already Have Tons of Theories About the Season 3 Poster," 2 Jan. 2019

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'speculate.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Keep scrolling for more

Learn More about speculate

Listen to Our Podcast about speculate

Dictionary Entries near speculate

Statistics for speculate

Last Updated

14 Feb 2019

Look-up Popularity

Time Traveler for speculate

The first known use of speculate was in 1599

See more words from the same year

Keep scrolling for more

More Definitions for speculate

speculator

noun

Financial Definition of speculator

What It Is

A speculator is a person or an entity that trades securities essentially as bets that the price will go up or down, and as such, typically has an above-average risk tolerance.

How It Works

Although one can argue that all investment is speculation, an acknowledged speculator will buy or sell a security solely to reap a typically short-term profit from the price movement of that security. This motivation differs significantly from those of more traditional investors or hedgers.

For example, consider the purchase of corn futures. A hedger may purchase these securities in order to offset any negative movements in the price of corn and thus stabilize his or her portfolio (these people might be corn growers or cereal companies, for instance). A speculator, however, may buy the very same security simply because he or she has reason to believe the position will increase in value. He or she simply bets on which way the market is going to go.

Why It Matters

Speculation can sometimes drive securities prices away from their intrinsic value, either becoming overpriced during a buying frenzy or becoming underpriced during a huge sell-off. Although speculators sometimes get a bad rap in the press for this reason, they are a crucial lubricant to the markets, particularly the commodities markets. Although they don't want to physically possess any of the commodities they're trading (that is, they don't really want a truckload of rice delivered to their door), their trading activity brings liquidity to the market, which in turn provides stability and efficiency to those markets.

It is important to note, however, that speculators are generally bigger risk takers than other investors. They are more likely than other investors to use leverage, and as such can suffer huge losses alongside huge gains.

Source: Investing Answers

speculate

verb

English Language Learners Definition of speculate

: to think about something and make guesses about it : to form ideas or theories about something usually when there are many things not known about it

: to invest money in ways that could produce a large profit but that also involve a lot of risk

See the full definition for speculate in the English Language Learners Dictionary

speculate

verb

spec·u·late | \ ˈspe-kyə-ˌlāt

speculated; speculating