Meaning & use
speculate
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Meanings
verbintransitive
To form guesses or theories about something without knowing the facts.
Grammar: Usually followed by about, on or over, or by a clause with whether: speculate about the cause.
Patterns
- speculate about something
- speculate on something
- speculate whether something
Reporters speculated about the reasons for his sudden resignation.
I won't speculate on what might have happened.
Scientists can only speculate whether life exists on other planets.
verbtransitive
To suggest an idea as a possibility, without evidence, usually in a statement.
Grammar: Takes a that-clause: experts speculate that prices will fall.
Patterns
- speculate that something
Analysts speculate that the company will be sold next year.
Historians speculate that the bridge was built in the tenth century.
Some fans speculated that the band was about to break up.
verbintransitivefinance
To buy and sell stocks, property or other assets hoping to make a large profit, while accepting a real risk of loss.
Grammar: Usually followed by in or on: speculate in shares.
Patterns
- speculate in something
- speculate on something
He lost his savings speculating in shares of a mining company.
Some investors speculate on the price of oil.
Many people speculated in land during the housing boom.
Word forms
| third person singular | speculates |
|---|---|
| past tense | speculated |
| past participle | speculated |
| -ing form | speculating |
Common combinations
- speculate about
- People speculate about the actor's next film.
- speculate wildly
- The press speculated wildly about the cause of the fire.
- speculate on the stock market
- He speculates on the stock market in his spare time.
- openly speculate
- Officials refused to openly speculate on the outcome.
- refuse to speculate
- The police refused to speculate on a motive.
Synonyms and how they differ
- guess
- Guess is shorter and more casual, and can be a single wild try, whereas speculate suggests thinking through possibilities.
- conjecture
- Conjecture is more formal and is used for a theory formed from incomplete evidence.
- theorize
- Theorize suggests building a reasoned explanation, so it is more systematic than speculate.
- gamble
- Gamble means to risk money on an uncertain result, and in finance it sounds more reckless than speculate.
Opposites
Word family
- speculation noun
- a guess, or risky buying and selling for profit
- speculator noun
- a person who invests in risky assets hoping for profit
- speculative adjective
- based on guesses rather than facts, or risky
- speculatively adverb
- in a way that is based on guesses
Commonly confused: speculate or speculum?
speculate vs speculum
A speculum is a medical tool for looking inside the body, and it is not a form of the verb speculate.
Practice
Which sentence uses speculate correctly?
Choose one answer.
Speculate takes about, on or over before the topic. To, at and of are not used with it in this meaning.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “speculate”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.