different between speculative vs doubtful

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

English

Alternative forms

• doubtfull (archaic)

Etymology

From Middle English doutfull, douteful, equivalent to doubt +? -ful.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?da?tf?l/
• Hyphenation: doubt?ful

Adjective

doubtful (comparative more doubtful, superlative most doubtful)

1. Subject to, or causing doubt.
2. Experiencing or showing doubt, sceptical.
3. Undecided or of uncertain outcome.
4. (obsolete) Fearsome, dreadful.
5. Improbable or unlikely.
6. Suspicious, or of dubious character.
7. Unclear or unreliable.

Derived terms

• doubtfully
• doubtfulness

Translations

Noun

doubtful (plural doubtfuls)

1. A doubtful person or thing.
   • 1976, Kenneth Gibbons, Donald Cameron Rowat, Political Corruption in Canada: Cases, Causes and Cures (page 45)

     They had their lists of Liberals and of the doubtfuls who still remained doubtful. As the election drew near, the force of the whole organization was turned upon these unrepentant doubtfuls.