Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- intransitive verb To engage in a course of reasoning often based on inconclusive evidence; conjecture or theorize.
- intransitive verb To engage in the buying or selling of a commodity with an element of risk on the chance of profit.
- intransitive verb To assume to be true without conclusive evidence.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To view as from a watch-tower or observatory; observe.
- To take a discriminating view of; consider attentively; speculate upon; examine; inspect: as, to
speculate the nature of a thing. - To pursue truth by thinking, as by mathematical reasoning, by logical analysis, or by the review of data already collected.
- To take a discursive view of a subject or subjects; note diverse aspects, relations, or probabilities; meditate; conjecture: often implying absence of definite method or result.
- To invest money for profit upon an uncertainty; take the risk of loss in view of possible gain; make a purchase or purchases, as of something liable to sudden fluctuations in price or to rapid deterioration, on the chance of selling at a large advance: as, to
speculate in stocks.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb rare To consider attentively.
- intransitive verb To consider by turning a subject in the mind, and viewing it in its different aspects and relations; to meditate; to contemplate; to theorize
- intransitive verb (Philos.) To view subjects from certain premises given or assumed, and infer conclusions respecting them
a priori . - intransitive verb (Com.) To purchase with the expectation of a contingent advance in value, and a consequent sale at a profit; -- often, in a somewhat depreciative sense, of unsound or hazardous transactions.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb intransitive to
think ,meditate orreflect on a subject; todeliberate orcogitate - verb intransitive to make an
inference based oninconclusive evidence ; tosurmise orconjecture - verb intransitive, business, finance to make a
risky trade in the hope of making aprofit ; toventure orgamble
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb talk over conjecturally, or review in an idle or casual way and with an element of doubt or without sufficient reason to reach a conclusion
- verb to believe especially on uncertain or tentative grounds
- verb invest at a risk
- verb reflect deeply on a subject
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word speculate.
Examples
-
The latter instinct, I would speculate, is the ability of mammals to deny the self in favor of the herd.
Hide this from Robin Hanson, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty 2009
-
Yes, yes, but the freedom to speculate is essential --
MIND MELD: Books We Love That Everyone Else Hates (and Vice Versa) 2010
-
Linking to the same Washington Post story, Crispin Sartwell, at his eyeofthestormblogs. com, writes: "this, we may speculate, is the reason that many prisoners of the u.s. will never be released: nothing they did before, but the secrets they learned in prison, the details of their own torture, present a security risk. we will not only torment you, we will detain/disappear you for having been tormented by us."
Balkinization 2006
-
Linking to the same Washington Post story, Crispin Sartwell, at his eyeofthestormblogs. com, writes: "this, we may speculate, is the reason that many prisoners of the u.s. will never be released: nothing they did before, but the secrets they learned in prison, the details of their own torture, present a security risk. we will not only torment you, we will detain/disappear you for having been tormented by us."
Balkinization 2006
-
Linking to the same Washington Post story, Crispin Sartwell, at his eyeofthestormblogs. com, writes: "this, we may speculate, is the reason that many prisoners of the u.s. will never be released: nothing they did before, but the secrets they learned in prison, the details of their own torture, present a security risk. we will not only torment you, we will detain/disappear you for having been tormented by us."
Balkinization 2006
-
Linking to the same Washington Post story, Crispin Sartwell, at his eyeofthestormblogs. com, writes: "this, we may speculate, is the reason that many prisoners of the u.s. will never be released: nothing they did before, but the secrets they learned in prison, the details of their own torture, present a security risk. we will not only torment you, we will detain/disappear you for having been tormented by us."
Balkinization 2006
-
Linking to the same Washington Post story, Crispin Sartwell, at his eyeofthestormblogs. com, writes: "this, we may speculate, is the reason that many prisoners of the u.s. will never be released: nothing they did before, but the secrets they learned in prison, the details of their own torture, present a security risk. we will not only torment you, we will detain/disappear you for having been tormented by us."
Balkinization 2006
-
And on the right, I speculate, is the house we stayed in, with the missing loggia in tact.
Campo San Vidal 2006
-
Linking to the same Washington Post story, Crispin Sartwell, at his eyeofthestormblogs. com, writes: "this, we may speculate, is the reason that many prisoners of the u.s. will never be released: nothing they did before, but the secrets they learned in prison, the details of their own torture, present a security risk. we will not only torment you, we will detain/disappear you for having been tormented by us."
Balkinization 2006
-
Linking to the same Washington Post story, Crispin Sartwell, at his eyeofthestormblogs. com, writes: "this, we may speculate, is the reason that many prisoners of the u.s. will never be released: nothing they did before, but the secrets they learned in prison, the details of their own torture, present a security risk. we will not only torment you, we will detain/disappear you for having been tormented by us."
Balkinization 2006
Comments
Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.