different between approximate vs speculative

English

Alternative forms

• approx. (abbreviation, also for adverb approximately)

Etymology

From Latin approximatus, past participle of approximare (“to approach”); ad + proximare (“to come near”). See proximate.

Pronunciation

Adjective

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?.?p??k.s?.m?t/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?.?p??k.s?.m?t/, /?.?p??k.s?.m?t/

Verb

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?.?p??k.s?.me?t/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?.?p??k.s?.me?t/

Adjective

approximate (comparative more approximate, superlative most approximate)

1. Approaching; proximate; nearly resembling.
2. Nearing correctness; nearly exact; not perfectly accurate.

   approximate results or values

   NASA's Genesis spacecraft has on board an ion monitor to record the speed, density, temperature and approximate composition of the solar wind ions.

Synonyms

• close

Antonyms

• exact, precise

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

approximate (third-person singular simple present approximates, present participle approximating, simple past and past participle approximated)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To estimate.

   I approximated the value of pi by taking 22 divided by 7.

2. (transitive) To come near to; to approach.
   • 1911, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax

     When you follow two separate chains of thought, Watson, you will find some point of intersection which should approximate to the truth.

   • 1802, Jedidiah Morse, The American Universal Geography

     The telescope approximates perfection.

3. (transitive) To carry or advance near; to cause to approach.
   • 1790, Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France

     to approximate the inequality of riches to the level of nature

Translations

Latin

Verb

approxim?te

1. second-person plural present active imperative of approxim?

English

Etymology

From Middle English, borrowed from Old French speculatif or directly from Late Latin speculativus, from Latin speculor.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?sp?kjul??t?v/
• Hyphenation: spec?u?la?tive

Adjective

speculative (comparative more speculative, superlative most speculative)

1. Characterized by speculation; based on guessing, unfounded opinions, or extrapolation.

   • "Don't dare laugh at us!" smiled his sister. "I wish we were back in Tenth Street. But so many children came […] and the Tenth Street house wasn't half big enough; and a dreadful speculative builder built this house and persuaded Austin to buy it. Oh, dear, and here we are among the rich and great; and the steel kings and copper kings and oil kings and their heirs and dauphins. Do you like the house?"
2. Pursued as a gamble, with possible large profits or losses; risky.
   • 2015, Paul Wilson, Alexis Sánchez sends Arsenal into final after gallant Reading go the distance (in The Guardian, 18 April 2015)[1]

     Little seemed on when Sánchez cut in from the left and sent a speculative low shot through a crowd of players, but though Federici had it covered he could not hold on to the ball and it squirmed over the line through his legs.

3. Pertaining to financial speculation; Involving or resulting from high-risk investments or trade.

Derived terms

• speculative damages
• speculative fiction
• speculatively
• speculativeness
• speculative philosophy
• speculative realism

Related terms

• speculate
• speculation
• speculativity

Translations

See also

• conjectural

Italian

Adjective

speculative

1. feminine plural of speculativo

Latin

Adjective

specul?t?ve

1. vocative masculine singular of specul?t?vus