Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Speculate |
SpeculateVerb1. To believe especially on uncertain or tentative grounds: "Scientists supposed that large dinosaurs lived in swamps.". 2. Indulge in speculations. 3. Reflect deeply on a subject; "I mulled over the events of the afternoon"; "philosophers have speculated on the question of God for thousands of years"; "The scientist must stop to observe and start to excogitate". 4. Invest at a risk; "I bought this house not because I want to live in it but to sell it later at a good price, so I am speculating". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "speculate" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1321. (references) |
Etymology: Speculate \Spec"u*late\, intransitive verb [imperfect & past participle. Speculated; Speculating.]. (Websters 1913) |
| Domain | Definition |
Literature | Speculate means to look out of a watch-tower, to spy about (Latin). Metaphorically, to look at a subject with the mind's eye, to spy into it; in commerce, to purchase articles which your mind has speculated on, and has led you to expect will prove profitable. (Specularis lapis is what we should now call window-glass.). Source: Brewer's Dictionary. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
Synonyms: SpeculateSynonyms: chew over (v), conjecture (v), contemplate (v), excogotate (v), hypothecate (v), hypothesize (v), job (v), meditate (v), mull (v), mull over (v), muse (v), ponder (v), reflect (v), ruminate (v), suppose (v), theorise (v), theorize (v), think over (v). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Barter | Speculate, give a sprat to catch a herring; buy in the cheapest and sell in the dearest market, buy low and sell high; corner the market; rig the market, stag the market. |
Essay | Verb: try, essay; experiment; endeavor, strive; tempt, attempt, make an attempt; venture, adventure, speculate, take one's chance, tempt fortune; try one's fortune, try one's luck, try one's hand; use one's endeavor; feel one's way, grope one's way, pick one's way. |
Intention | Speculate, try one's luck, set on a cast, raffle, put into a lottery, buy a pig in a poke, shuffle the cards. |
Mart | Verb: speculate, invest, trade, trade stocks, play the market; buy long, sell short, take a position, straddle; take a plunge, plunge in, take a flier. |
Supposition | Verb: suppose, conjecture, surmise, suspect, guess, divine; theorize; presume, presurmise, presuppose; assume, fancy, wis, take it; give a guess, speculate, believe, dare say, take it into one's head, take for granted; imagine. |
Thought | Verb: think, reflect, cogitate, excogitate, consider, deliberate; bestow thought upon, bestow consideration upon; speculate, contemplate, meditate, ponder, muse, dream, ruminate; brood over, con over; animadvert, study; bend -, apply mind; (attend); digest, discuss, hammer at, weigh, perpend; realize, appreciate; fancy; (imagine); trow. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Speculate |
| English words defined with "speculate": Physiologize, Pythagorize ♦ Speculated, Speculating ♦ To deal in futures. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "speculate": cyberpunk ♦ Gravel ♦ Kite ♦ Need ♦ to buy for a rise, to enter into bear transactions, to enter into bull transactions, to sell for a fall, to speculate for a fall, to speculate for a rise. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | The slightest thought hadn't even begun to speculate about the merest possibility of crossing my mind. (The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy; writing credit: Douglas Adams; John Lloyd) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit |  | Science supports grandmother's advice that oats are good for you-they can help lower cholesterol levels. Scientists speculate oats may accomplish this by slowing the rate at which the intestines absorb carbohydrates. P. Credit: USDA ARS News; photo by Scott Bauer.. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| Title | Author | Quote |
Scarlet Letter | Hawthorne, Nathaniel | It is remarkable, that persons who speculate the most boldly often conform with the most perfect quietude to the external regulations of society. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | Scientists speculate that magnesium may play a role in brain development and possibly prevent bleeding inside the brains of preterm infants. (references) | |
Some researchers speculate that abnormalities or deficiencies in the receptors for certain neurotransmitters may contribute to some forms of myoclonus. (references) | ||
Some scientists speculate that women with these blood types are more prone to UTIs because the cells lining the vagina and urethra may allow bacteria to attach more easily. (references) | ||
Business | While the maximum corporate tax has been cut to 30 percent, analysts speculate that the IOCs will have a higher tax burden. (references) | |
Local industry sources speculate that the local market will be dominated by Volvo Korea and Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. Ltd. since half of the major Korean manufacturers are currently out of business. (references) | ||
As an example, if STC awards a contract to a Finnish firm, industry analysts speculate that most of the sub-contracts for the supply of equipment and provision of services would be given to Finnish firms. (references) | ||
Economic History | Singapore | The aim is to deter use of borrowed SGD to speculate against the exchange rate. (references) |
China | Although MOFTEC is currently studying revisions of its M/A law, officials decline to speculate about when a new law would be finalized. (references) | |
Ukraine | Industry insiders speculate that other two remaining MC operators are considering divesting their networks, which would additionally consolidate the market. (references) | |
Human Rights | Libya | The law also applies the death penalty to those who speculate in foreign currency, food, clothing, or housing during a state of war or a blockade, and for crimes related to drugs and alcohol. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| Speaker | Phrase(s) |
John McCain | You know, that's always interesting in the media and it's fun to speculate on that, you know, there's this differences of opinion and various different leaks and allegiances and who has the ear of the president and all that. |
Katie Couric | Well, first of all, you know, a lot of the stuff that was in the press was just plain wrong. You know, people speculate, then one thing gets printed, and then everybody prints the same thing. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| "Speculate" is generally used as a lexical verb (infinitive) -- approximately 88.70% of the time. "Speculate" is used about 416 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Lexical Verb (infinitive) | 88.7% | 369 | 14,694 |
| Lexical Verb (base form) | 9.13% | 38 | 55,818 |
| Noun (singular) | 2.16% | 9 | 117,287 |
| Total | 100.00% | 416 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "speculate": speculate on ♦ to speculate ♦ to speculate for a fall ♦ to speculate for a rise. Additional references. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
speculate | 100 |
build growth invest land own retire self speculate | 8 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "speculate"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Albanian | spekuloj (profiteer, trade on), meditoj (contemplate, meditate, pore), arsyetoj (descant, dissert, dissertate, expostulate, justify, motivate, ratiocinate, rationalize, reason, recognize, reflect). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arabic | تفكر (contemplate, contemplation, meditation, ponder, rumination, speculation), تحزر (speculation), تأمل (cogitative, consider, contemplate, contemplation, meditate, meditation, muse, observation, ponder, pore over, rumble, ruminate, rumination, study, think, think out, think over, thinking), ضارب في البورصة (scalp), خمن (appraise, estimate, evaluate, guess, infer, riddle, size up, suppose, surmise). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bulgarian | размишлявам (cogitate, meditate, muse, ponder, ruminate, study, think away), обмислям (agitate, bethink, cogitate, consider, debate, deliberate, digest, meditate, mull, ponder, pore, reason, revolve, study, think about, think out, think over, turn over in one's mind), занимавам се със спекула. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chinese | 推测 (extrapolation, Fathomed, Fathoming, Presumption, Speculated, Speculating, surmise, Surmised, Surmising), 推測 (conjecture, speculation, surmise). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Czech | spekulovat, rozjímat (contemplate), přemýšlet (contemplate, meditate, muse, reflect, study, think, think over), hloubat (pore). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Danish | spekulere (to speculate), at spekulere i haussen (to buy for a rise, to enter into bull transactions, to speculate for a rise), at spekulere i baissen (to enter into bear transactions, to sell for a fall, to speculate for a fall). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dutch | bespiegelingen houden. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Esperanto | spekulativi. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Farsi | معاملات قماری کردن , تفکرکردن (Chew, Consider, Contemplate, Imagine, Meditate, Muse, Ponder), سفته بازی کردن (Kite), اندیشیدن (Contemplate, Think), احتکارکردن (Engross, Hoard). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Finnish | spekuloida, keinotella (to speculate). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | spéculer (to speculate), jouer la bourse. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | spekulieren (gamble), grübeln (brood, chew, cogitate, muse, pore, puzzle over, rack one's brains, ruminate, rumination, to muse, to speculate). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | κερδοσκοπώ (profiteer), διαλογίζομαι. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hebrew | ל"עלות "שער", לספסר (mediate, profiteer, tout). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | spekulál (to deal for a fall, to speculate), töpreng (mull over, ponder, ruminate, thought, to brood on sg, to brood over sg, to mull, to mull over sg, to reflect, to reflect on, to speculate, to think). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | speculare (gamble, profiteer, specular), mercanteggiare (bargain, chaffer, deal, Dicker, haggle, palter, sell, trade, traffic), meditare (brood, cogitate, contemplate, meditate, muse, ponder, reflect, revolve), ipotizzare (conjecture), chiedersi. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Korean | 사색하십시". (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Manx | shein (conjecture, guess, imagine, presume, suppose), sheiltyn (conceive, conceiving, conjecture, fancy, guess, imagine, presume, suppose, supposing, theorize, visualize), jannoo tuarymaght (speculation). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | eculatespay refletir (bethink, consider, esteem, glass, glisten, image, meditate, mirror, reflect, reflect on, regard, return, reverberate, ruminate, see, take into account, think, think about, think over), meditar (brood, chew, cogitate, contemplate, meditate, muse, pore, ruminate, think), especular (engross, profiteer, specular). (various references) specula (exploit, job, play upon), juca la bursã, face presupuneri (conjecture, imagine), emite ipoteze (imagine), conta pe (count on, count upon, depend upon). (various references) размышлять (cogitate, contemplate, meditate, meditated, meditating, mull over, muse about, perpend, ratiocinate, reason, reflect, speculated, speculates). (various references) razmišljati (cogitate, contemplate, debate, deliberate, meditate, mull over, muse, ponder, reflect, ruminate, think over), špekulisati. (various references) especular (examine, gamble, inspect, meditate). (various references) spekulera (job, operate, philosophize, play the market, ponder, trade). (various references) spekülasyon yapmak (bear, bull, gamble, operate, stag), tahminde bulunmak (guess, prognosticate), kuramsal olarak düşünmek. (various references) спекулювати (gamble, profiteer, venture), міркувати (brood over, cogitate, contemplate, deliberate, descant, dwell, excogitate, meditate, peruse, pore, ratiocinate, reason). (various references) damcanu (theorize). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "speculate": speculated, speculates. (additional references) | |
Words ending with "speculate": overspeculate. (additional references) | |
Words containing "speculate": overspeculated, overspeculates. (additional references) | |
| |
"Speculate" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: speulate. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "speculate" (pronounced spe"kyulā't) |
| 6 | -k y u l ā' t | articulate, calculate, circulate, inoculate, miscalculate, recalculate. |
| 5 | -y u l ā' t | accumulate, coagulate, copulate, depopulate, emulate, formulate, manipulate, overregulate, populate, reformulate, regulate, reregulate, simulate, stimulate, stipulate, strangulate, tabulate. |
| 4 | -u l ā' t | adulate, annihilate, assimilate, congratulate, correlate, distillate, encapsulate, escalate, extrapolate, flagellate, gastrulate, insulate, interpolate, isolate, lanceolate, mutilate, oscillate, percolate, postulate, recapitulate, titillate, undulate, vacillate, ventilate. |
| 3 | -l ā' t | angulate, boilerplate, breastplate, capitulate, contemplate, ejaculate, electroplate, legislate, nameplate. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
Direct Anagrams: peculates. | |
| Words within the letters "a-c-e-e-l-p-s-t-u" | |
-1 letter: capelets, epaulets, peculate. | |
-2 letters: capelet, caplets, capsule, celesta, cuspate, eluates, epaulet, euclase, pectase, placets, pulsate, scaleup, specula, sulcate, teacups, upscale. | |
-3 letters: acutes, asleep, aspect, caplet, castle, catsup, caules, claspt, clause, cleats, clepes, cuesta, culets, culpae, cupels, cutlas, eclats, elapse, elates, elects, eluate, elutes, epacts, escape, etapes, letups, palest, palets, pastel, peaces, peseta, pestle. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-c-e-e-l-p-s-t-u" | |
+1 letter: exculpates, petulances, speculated, speculates. | |
+2 letters: encapsulate, pediculates, petulancies, speculative. | |
+3 letters: counterpleas, encapsulated, encapsulates, eucalyptoles, eucalyptuses, peacefullest, prosecutable, reduplicates, sextuplicate, ultraprecise. | |
+4 letters: autocephalies, conceptualise, inoperculates, leptocephalus, outplacements, overspeculate, peculiarities, recapitulates, sextuplicated, sextuplicates, specularities, speculatively, unrespectable. | |
+5 letters: conceptualised, conceptualises, conceptualizes, counterplayers, nonspeculative, overspeculated, overspeculates, percutaneously, subspecialties, superspectacle, unpredictables. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Photo Album 7. Quotations: Fiction 8. Quotations: Non-fiction | 9. Quotations: Spoken 10. Usage Frequency 11. Expressions 12. Expressions: Internet | 13. Translations: Modern 14. Derivations 15. Rhymes 16. Anagrams | 17. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
