speculator

noun

spec·​u·​la·​tor ˈspe-kyə-ˌlā-tər 

plural speculators

: someone who speculates: such as

a

: a person who thinks or guesses especially in an idle or casual way about something that is unknown or uncertain

I sat Friday night in the dining room in front of my laptop, the TV in the next room flitting among experts and speculators about what happened in Paris …

—Scott Martelle

"… All that we ought to ask, therefore, is, that the witnesses of our conduct, and the speculators on our motives, should be capable of taking the highest view which the circumstances of the case may admit. …"

—Nathaniel Hawthorne

b

: a person who makes a relatively risky investment in something (such as stocks or real estate) in the hope of making a large short-term profit from market fluctuations

futures/currency speculators

By the late 1870s Edward Pray was living in New York City, still interested in mining but instead now as a speculator in mining stocks.

—Willa Kane

Over the years, many houses have been bought by speculators or real estate companies and rented out.

—Margaret Gillerman

Examples of speculator in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

This irrational market behavior stems partly from the cult of personality surrounding Musk and partly from speculators betting on his promises of revolutionary artificial intelligence and robotics breakthroughs. —Nicholas Creel, MSNBC Newsweek, 1 May 2025

Last autumn, for example, Trump Media’s stock saw a triple-digit percentage spike largely due to a classic short squeeze as speculators betting against the company found few shares available to buy back. —Joel Shulman, Forbes.com, 27 Apr. 2025

Nobody is quite sure what caused the shortage, but experts think speculators may be hoarding rice in anticipation of rising prices. —Natasha Frost, New York Times, 14 Mar. 2025

Meme Coins Going Mainstream Like the wild oil booms of the 19th century, meme coins have turned digital traders into modern-day speculators. —Chris Groshong, Forbes, 12 Mar. 2025

Word History

Etymology

speculate + -or entry 1; in earlier sense "observer, lookout," borrowed from Latin speculātor "scout, spy, sentinel," from speculārī "to keep a close watch on, spy out, watch for" + -tor, agent suffix — more at speculate

First Known Use

1555, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for speculator

• activator
• actuator
• agitator
• alligator
• allocator
• alternator
• animator
• annotator
• applicator
• arbitrator
• aspirator
• aviator