speculate
Formsspeculates, speculating, speculated
- 1To form an opinion or conclusion from evidence that is incomplete or uncertain.
Historians speculate that the city was abandoned after a long drought.
With no official statement, investors were left to speculate about the company's next move.
Similarguess, conjecture, theorize, surmise, hypothesize
Note
Two constructions carry the guess. Speculate that is followed by a clause that states it outright, as in Richard Ellis's The Book of Sharks (1983): "we can speculate that" the sharks are not feeding. Speculate about names the topic and leaves the guess open. A phrase like "it is tempting to speculate" works as a hedge, warning the reader that what follows goes beyond the evidence.
- 2To make a risky trade or investment in hope of profit, accepting the chance of loss.
Traders who speculate on currency swings can lose fortunes overnight.
She decided to speculate in commodities during the boom.
Similargamble, bet, invest, venture
Oppositehedge
Note
Finance's version of the gamble is a bet on price movement. The speculator seeks gains from fluctuations rather than from income or underlying value. Besides speculate on and speculate in, the verb can take the money as its direct object. R. K. Kirkland's 1951 Railway Magazine article describes local authorities unwilling "to speculate public funds on" a doubtful railway scheme.
- 3In a processor, to predict which branch of code will run and execute it ahead of time.
Pipelined processors speculate to avoid stalling while a branch is being resolved.
When the outcome of a test is unknown, the CPU may speculate and roll back if it guessed wrong.
Note
Here the gamble is made by hardware. Like the trader's sense, it accepts a risk for a payoff, but the payoff is speed. Rather than stall until a branch condition is resolved, the processor executes along the predicted path and discards the results if the prediction proves wrong. The subject is the processor or CPU, and the verb normally stands alone without an object.
Less common meaning
- 4To think, meditate, or reflect deeply on a subject; to consider or deliberate.
It is remarkable that persons who speculate the most boldly often conform with the most perfect quietude to the external regulations of society.
1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet LetterNote
The contemplative sense stays closest to the Latin: speculor meant "to watch, observe," from specula, a watchtower, so thinking is pictured as looking out from a height. Hawthorne still uses it in The Scarlet Letter (1850), where those who "speculate the most boldly" are bold thinkers, not bold guessers. A modern reader will hear the "guessing" meaning instead, so keep this one for period writing.
Practice
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Origin
This word was borrowed from Latin speculātus, the past participle of speculor ("to watch, observe, examine, spy"). That verb came from specula ("a watchtower"), and ultimately from speciō ("to look at").