Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Speculative |
SpeculativeAdjective1. Not financially safe or secure; "a bad investment"; "high risk investments"; "anything that promises to pay too much can't help being risky"; "speculative business enterprises". 2. Not based on fact or investigation; "a notional figure of cost helps in determining production costs"; "speculative knowledge". 3. Showing curiosity; "if someone saw a man climbing a light post they might get inquisitive"; "raised a speculative eyebrow". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "speculative" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1588. (references) |
Synonyms: SpeculativeSynonyms: bad (adj), high-risk (adj), inquisitive (adj), insecure (adj), notional (adj), questioning (adj), risky (adj), wondering(a) (adj). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Experiment | Probative, probatory, probationary, provisional; analytic, docimastic; tentative;unverified, unproven, speculative, untested. |
Intention | Unforeseeable, unpredictable, chancy, risky, speculative, dicey. |
Supposition | Adjective: supposing; Verb: given, mooted, postulatory; assumed; Verb: supposititious, suppositive, suppositious; gratuitous, speculative, conjectural, hypothetical, theoretical, academic, supposable, presumptive, putative; suppositional. |
Thought | Adjective: thinking; Verb: thoughtful, pensive, meditative, reflective, museful, wistful, contemplative, speculative, deliberative, studious, sedate, introspective, Platonic, philosophical. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Speculative |
| English words defined with "speculative": airy ♦ bubble, bull ♦ house of cards ♦ impractical, inquisitive ♦ peak ♦ questioning ♦ reach a peak, risk capital ♦ speculatively, Speculatorial, Speculatory ♦ The Monroe doctrine, Theoretics ♦ venture capital, visionary ♦ with speculation, wondering. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "speculative": cats and dogs, conservative evaluation, Cyrix 6x86 ♦ Dynamic Execution ♦ Edridge-Green theory, Edridge-Green theory of color vision ♦ Libertines ♦ meatspace, memetics ♦ penny stocks ♦ speculative evaluation, speculative execution, speculative security ♦ Trusts ♦ undiscovered resources. (references) |
| Domain | Title | ||
Books |
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Periodicals |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Author | Date | Quotation |
Communist Manifesto | 1848 | The robe of speculative cobwebs, embroidered with flowers of rhetoric, steeped in the dew of sickly sentiment, this transcendental robe in which the German Socialists wrapped their sorry "eternal truths," all skin and bone, served to wonderfully increase the sale of their goods amongst such a public. (reference) |
Roe v. Wade | 1973 | The Does' complaint, based as it is on contingencies, any one or more of which may not occur, is too speculative to present an actual case or controversy. (reference) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Title | Author | Quote |
Gulliver's Travels | Swift, Jonathan | We crossed a walk to the other part of the Academy, where, as I have already said, the projectors in speculative learning resided. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | Finally, after years of clinical research and experience with ADHD, our knowledge about the cause or causes of ADHD remains largely speculative. (references) | |
At present, the relationship between hyperinsulinemia and cardiovascular disease is largely speculative, and more definitive answers await additional investigation. (references) | ||
In response to the question, "What are the mechanisms of action of IVIG?" the panel concludes that in most circumstances present hypotheses are speculative and not proven. (references) | ||
Business | The figure for Safaricom is speculative as, unlike KenCell, Safaricom is not bound by specific quantitative rollout obligations. (references) | |
The property market saw a huge speculative construction boom in the early 1990s and, since 1996, supply has far outpaced demand. (references) | ||
Fearing hyperinflation, Chinese authorities called in speculative loans, raised interest rates, and re-evaluated investment projects. (references) | ||
Economic History | Jordan | The ASE also suffers from persistent liquidity problems, which have ensured that the bourse remains prone to speculative movements. (references) |
Pakistan | The SECP has focused its efforts this past year on reform of the capital markets, including steps to curtail speculative trading by requiring that brokers have adequate resources to cover liabilities. (references) | |
Tunisia | SEVERAL OTHER LEGAL TEXTS ALSO ADDRESS BROADER CONCEPTS OF CORRUPTION INCLUDING VIOLATIONS OF THE COMMERCIAL OR LABOR CODES, WHICH RANGE FROM SPECULATIVE FINANCIAL PRACTICES TO GIVING OR ACCEPTING BRIBES. (references) | |
Political Economy | INDIA | Relationship with Creditors: Citing its growing foreign exchange reserves and ample food stocks, India chose not to negotiate an extended financing facility with the IMF when its standby arrangement expired in May 1993. In October 1998, Standard and Poor's (S&P) downgraded India's foreign currency rating from BB+ to BB. In October 1999, Moody's upgraded India's foreign currency rating outlook from stable to positive while maintaining an unchanged speculative grade rating of Ba2. (references) |
PHILIPPINES | Recent measures in response to speculative currency pressures and excessive foreign exchange volatility included monetary tightening (i.e., adjustments in reserve requirements and a generally cautious domestic interest-rate stance despite successive U.S. rate cuts); a lower over-the-counter ceiling for foreign exchange sales without documentation; expanded coverage of the BSP's Currency Risk Protection Facility (a nondeliverable forward hedging facility first introduced in December 1997 to reduce pressures in the spot market); and occasional liquidity infusions in the interbank foreign exchange market. (references) | |
Trade | Croatia | Local companies are allowed to hold foreign exchange accounts even for speculative purposes according to the Foreign Currency Act. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| Speaker | Term | Phrase(s) |
John Adams | 1797-1801 | Upon this point all speculative politicians will agree, that the happiness of society is the end of government, as all divines and moral philosophers will agree that the happiness of the individual is the end of man. |
John Quincy Adams | 1825-1829 | The collisions of party spirit which originate in speculative opinions or in different views of administrative policy are in their nature transitory. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| "Speculative" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 99.85% of the time. "Speculative" is used about 680 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 |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 99.85% | 679 | 9,730 |
| Noun (proper) | 0.15% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 680 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "speculative": speculative bond ♦ speculative builder ♦ speculative developer ♦ speculative evaluation ♦ speculative execution ♦ speculative gain ♦ speculative grade paper ♦ speculative investment ♦ speculative risk ♦ speculative security ♦ speculative theology. 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. |
| Language | Translations for "speculative"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Albanian | spekulativ, teorik (academic, academical, armchair, paper, theoretic, theoretical), meditues (contemplative, meditative), me rrezik (adventurous, badly, chancy, perilous, precarious, Venturous). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arabic | فكري (ideational, ideological, intellectual, mental), تفكري, تحزرى, تضاربي في البورصة, تأملي (contemplative, meditative, reflective). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bulgarian | умозрителен (notional), спекулативен (notional), рискован (adventurous, chanceful, chancy, hazardous, insecure, parlous, perilous, precarious, queasy, risky, sporting, touch and go, unsound, venturesome). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chinese | 推理 (reasoning), 投机 (Congenial). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Czech | spekulativní (notional), hloubavý. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Danish | spekulative kapitalbevægelser (speculative capital movements), spekulativ risiko (speculative risk), spekulativ pengebevægelse (run on a currency, speculative monetary movement), spekulativ investering (speculative grade paper), spekulationspapir (cats and dogs, penny stock, speculative security), spekulationsobligation (junk bond, speculative bond), spekulationsgevinst (speculative gain), spekulationsbygherre (speculative builder, speculative developer), spekulationsbølgen (speculative bubble), pres på en valuta (run on a currency, speculative monetary movement), potentielle reserver (potential resources, speculative reserves), person der hamstrer (hoarder, one who maintains excess stocks of a product for speculative purposes), massiv spekulation (speculative attack), hamstrer (hoarder, one who maintains excess stocks of a product for speculative purposes). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dutch | speculatief, bespiegelend. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Esperanto | spekulativa. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Finnish | spekulatiivinen voitto (speculative gain), spekulatiivinen riski (speculative risk), keinottelija (profiteer, speculator), hamstraaja (hoarder, one who maintains excess stocks of a product for speculative purposes), grynderi (developer), alhaisen riskiluokituksen omaava arvopaperi (speculative grade paper). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | spéculatif. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | spekulativ (notional, speculatively, speculatory, theoretical). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | κερδοσκοπικόσ, σκεπτικόσ (broody, cogitative, contemplative, pensive, reflective, ruminant, ruminative, sceptic, sceptical, skeptical, thoughtful, wistful), θεωρητικόσ (doctrinaire, notional, theoretical, theoretician, theorist). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hebrew | עיו י (academic, notional, theoretical), רעיו י (conceptual, ideological, reflective), ספקולטיבי, ספסרי (profiteering), סברתי (conjectural, hypothetical). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | spekulatív (notional), elméleti (academic, academical, bookish, ideological, platonic, pure, theoretic, theoretical), spekulációs, elmélkedő (contemplating, contemplative, meditative, pondering, reflective, ruminative). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | speculativo (notional). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Kanji | 投機的 . (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Katakana | とうきてき. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Korean | 위험한 (Dangerous, hazardous, Perilous, risky, unsafe). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Manx | tuarymagh (speculator), sheiltynagh (conjectural, fanciful, imaginable, imaginary, imaginative, notional, presumable, putative, speculator, theoretic, theoretical, theorist, thinkable), barelagh (presumptive). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | eculativespay teórico (academical, bookish, doctrinaire, theoretic, theoretical, theoretician, theorist, unpractical), reflexivo (reflective, reflexive), especulativo (notional), dado especulação, conjetural (conjectural), arriscado (audacious, breakneck, chanceful, dangerous, daring, hazardous, intrepid, perilous, precarious, risky, scabrous, touch-and-go, ugly, unsafe, venturesome). (various references) speculativ (contemplative, notional), teoretic (abstract, academic, academical, notional, notionally, theoretical), meditativ (cogitative, meditating, meditative, meditatively, mused, museful, musing, musingly, pensive, pensively, thoughtful, wistful), gânditor (meditative, meditatively, mind, mused, museful, musing, notionalist, pensive, thinker, thinking, thoughtful, wistful), contemplativ (contemplative, contemplatively, meditative, meditatively), care se sprijinã pe presupunere. (various references) умозрительный (conceptual, notional). (various references) spekulativan, špekulantski. (various references) especulativo (notional, theoretical). (various references) spekulativ. (various references) spekülatif, vesveseli (gun-shy, restless, solicitous), teorik (abstract, academic, academical, pure, technical, theoretic, theoretical), kuruntulu (gloomy, vaporous), kurgusal (fictive), kuramsal (abstract, academic, academical, doctrinaire, hypothetic, hypothetical, notional, pure, theoretic, theoretical), şüpheli (chancy, contestable, creaky, debatable, discredited, disputable, dodgy, doubtful, dubious, dubitative, equivocal, fishy, funny, funny peculiar, hazardous, indecisive, indefinable, murky, nebulous, precarious, problematic, problematical, sceptical, screwy, shadowy, shady, shaky, skeptical, suspect, suspenseful, suspicious, umbrageous, uncertain, unconvincing). (various references) умоглядний (notional), спекулятивний, теоретичний (abstract, academic, platonic, pure, theoretic, theoretical). (various references) có tính chất ức đoán đầu cơ tích trữ. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | theoricus. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "speculative": speculatively. (additional references) | |
Words ending with "speculative": antispeculative, nonspeculative. (additional references) | |
| |
"Speculative" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: piaculative, speculatif, speulative. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "speculative" (pronounced spe"kyulutiv) |
| 7 | -y u l u t i v | cumulative, noncumulative. |
| 5 | -l u t i v | contemplative, expletive, relative, superlative. |
| 4 | -u t i v | accusative, acquisitive, additive, affirmative, alliterative, alternative, anticompetitive, argumentative, causative, cognitive, commemorative, communicative, comparative, competitive, consecutive, conservative, consultative, curative, decorative, definitive, degenerative, demonstrative, derivative, diminutive, dispositive, duplicative, evocative, executive, exploitative, Federative, figurative, fixative, formative, fugitive, generative, hypersensitive, illustrative, imaginative, imperative, indicative, infinitive, informative, initiative, inoperative, inquisitive, insensitive, interpretive, intuitive, laxative, lucrative, narrative, negative, neoconservative, noncompetitive, nonexecutive, normative, nutritive, operative, palliative, participative, pejorative, positive, prerogative, preservative, preventative, primitive, prohibitive, provocative, punitive, putative, recuperative, remunerative, rep, repetitive, representative, restorative, secretive, sedative, sensitive, talkative, tentative, ultraconservative, uncompetitive, uncooperative, unimaginative, uninformative, unrepresentative, vituperative. |
| 3 | -t i v | abortive, accommodative, accumulative, active, adaptive, addictive, adjective, administrative, adoptive, affective, appointive, appreciative, assaultive, assertive, attentive, attractive, authoritative, automotive, captive, collaborative, collective, combative, conductive, congestive, connective, constructive, contraceptive, cooperative, corrective, corruptive, counterproductive, creative, deceptive, defective, deliberative, descriptive, destructive, detective, digestive, dilutive, directive, disincentive, disparages, disruptive, dissipative, distinctive, distributive, effective, elective, elucidative, eruptive, exhaustive, exploitive, facultative, festive, furtive, hyperactive, imitative, inactive, inattentive, incentive, ineffective, infective, injunctive, innovative, instinctive, instructive, interactive, introspective, invective, inventive, investigative, irrespective, iterative, legislative, locomotive, manipulative, meditative, motive, native, nonautomotive, nonnative, nonproductive, objective, obstructive, octave, overactive, perceptive, perspective, photoconductive, plaintive, predictive, preemptive, presumptive, preventive, proactive, probative, productive, prognosticative, projective, prospective, protective, qualitative, quantitative, radioactive, reactive, receptive, reconstructive, redemptive, redistributive, reflective, refractive, regulative, rehabilitative, reproductive, respective, restive, restrictive, retroactive, retrospective, seductive, selective, stimulative, subjective, substantive, suggestive, superconductive, supportive, unattractive, unproductive, unreceptive, vegetative, vindictive. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-c-e-e-i-l-p-s-t-u-v" | |
-1 letter: vesiculate. | |
-2 letters: eluviates, peculates, speculate, vesiculae. | |
-3 letters: calipees, capelets, captives, elatives, eluviate, epaulets, especial, leaviest, leucites, peculate, plausive, septical, speciate, spiculae, tieclasp, vealiest, vesicate, vesicula, victuals. | |
-4 letters: actives, aplites, aseptic, auspice, calipee, capelet, caplets, capsule, captive, celesta, cleaves, cuspate, cutesie, eclipse, elastic, elative, eluates, elusive, epaulet, epistle, estival, euclase, evilest, laciest, latices, leucite, lievest. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-c-e-e-i-l-p-s-t-u-v" | |
+2 letters: speculatively. | |
+3 letters: nonspeculative. | |
+4 letters: antispeculative, overspeculating, overspeculation. | |
+5 letters: overspeculations. | |
| 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: Commercial | 5. Quotations: Historic 6. Quotations: Fiction 7. Quotations: Non-fiction 8. Quotations: Speeches | 9. Usage Frequency 10. Expressions 11. Expressions: Internet 12. Translations: Modern | 13. Translations: Ancient 14. Derivations 15. Rhymes 16. Anagrams | 17. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
