speculate

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“
And I thought it was astonishing to speculate, as if this were a competition, on something that was such a fresh wound.

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Definitions (15)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (4)

  1. intransitive verb To meditate on a subject; reflect.
  2. intransitive verb To engage in a course of reasoning often based on inconclusive evidence. See Synonyms at think.
  3. intransitive verb To engage in the buying or selling of a commodity with an element of risk on the chance of profit.
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Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (5)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (2)

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Examples (50)

  • And I thought it was astonishing to speculate, as if this were a competition, on something that was such a fresh wound. —  David Rockwell builds at Ground Zero
  • I used the word speculate, because that is what it is speculation. —  MyLinkVault Newest Links
  • We do not know and cannot speculate, and are in dangerous territory when we-or anyone else for that matter-claim to have iron-clad categorical answers to these thoroughly modern questions. —  The Chicago Blog
  • '' They speculate, they ponder, they prattle in polemics.
  • In the absence of knowledge, we're left to speculate -- and speculate I will! —  Arms and influence
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same contextWord Family

speculate:   speculated ·  speculating ·  speculates
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Latin speculārī, speculāt-, to observe, from specula, watchtower, from specere, to look at; see spek- in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. from Latin speculatus, past participle of speculari, spy out, watch, observe, behold (later Italian speculare = Spanish Portuguese especular = Old French speculer, French spéculer), from specula, a watch-tower, from specere, see: see species. Cf. speculum.
 

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/ˈspɛkjuleɪt/
by American Heritage

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