different between speculative vs speculate

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

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin specul?tus, past participle of speculor (“look out”), from specula (“watchtower”), from speci? (“look at”)

Verb

speculate (third-person singular simple present speculates, present participle speculating, simple past and past participle speculated)

1. (obsolete, intransitive) To think, meditate or reflect on a subject; to consider, to deliberate or cogitate.

   • It is remarkable that persons who speculate the most boldly often conform with the most perfect quietude to the external regulations of society.

2. (intransitive) To make an inference based on inconclusive evidence; to surmise or conjecture.
3. (intransitive, business, finance) To make a risky trade in the hope of making a profit; to venture or gamble.
4. (intransitive, programming) To anticipate which branch of code will be chosen and execute it in advance.

Related terms

• species
• spectacle
• spectacular
• speculation
• speculative
• speculator

Translations

Further reading

• speculate in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• speculate in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• peculates

Italian

Verb

speculate

1. second-person plural present indicative of speculare
2. second-person plural imperative of speculare
3. feminine plural of speculato

Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /spe.ku?la?.te/, [s?p?k????ä?t??]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /spe.ku?la.te/, [sp?ku?l??t??]

Participle

specul?te

1. vocative masculine singular of specul?tus