speculation
Pluralspeculations
- 1An idea or conclusion reached by guessing rather than from solid evidence; mere theory or conjecture.
The cause of the fire remains a matter of speculation.
Her theory was dismissed as idle speculation rather than established fact.
Similarconjecture, guesswork, supposition, surmise, theory
Oppositefact, certainty, proof, knowledge
Note
Here the word turns judgmental. William Temple, writing in 1690, already pairs it with "useless and endless," and idle speculation does the same work today. In the singular it often appears as a matter of speculation, meaning nobody yet knows. The plural can stay neutral, as when Macaulay describes speculations given "the lofty name of the 'Oracles of Reason'."
- 2Reflective thinking about a subject, or an instance of pondering it.
Philosophical speculation occupied most of his evenings.
The lecture invited speculation on the nature of time itself.
Similarcontemplation, reflection, meditation, rumination, musing
Note
Milton's "speculations high or deep" catches the range of this kind of thought. Intense has long been its companion. Swift's Laputians are lost in "intense Speculations" in 1726, and The Guardian in 2012 reports "months of intense speculation" about a royal pregnancy. The modern phrase leans toward public guessing, close to mere conjecture. The older one meant absorbed private thought.
- 3An investment that carries higher-than-normal risk in the hope of a higher-than-normal return.
The fund avoided speculation, preferring steady long-term holdings.
Currency speculation can move markets within minutes.
Similargamble, venture, risk, punt
Note
Finance uses the word both for a single bet and for the activity: a speculation (one risky position), or speculation in currencies, land or shares. What sets it apart from income investing or hedging is where the profit is meant to come from: a favorable move in price, not any yield the asset pays. Its close neighbor is buying low to sell high, the trading practice itself; this sense names the risky stake.
- 4The practice of buying or selling assets in the hope of profiting from future price changes rather than from normal trade margins.
Speculation in housing drove rents up across the city.
Wheat prices swung wildly under heavy speculation that summer.
Similartrading, gambling, dealing
Note
Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations (1776) still holds the term at arm's length, calling it "what is called the trade of speculation." By 1883, Francis Amasa Walker's Political Economy defends it, "while confined within moderate limits," as what equalizes supply and demand. Its tone still depends on the writer. To one it is a useful market function; to another it is a gamble on other people's prices.
- 5The act or process of reasoning from given or assumed premises, prior to and independent of experience.
Greek cosmology rested largely on speculation about first principles.
Metaphysical speculation seeks truths that reason alone can reach.
Similartheorizing, reasoning, theory
Oppositeobservation, experiment, empiricism
Note
Philosophers use the word without the sneer it carries elsewhere. For them it names a method: reasoning outward from premises rather than inward from observation. The contrast is with empirical inquiry, not with careful thinking. In general writing, calling an argument speculation usually suggests mere conjecture, so make clear which sense you intend.
- 6The process of predicting which branch of code will run and executing it in advance.
Speculation allows the CPU to begin work before a branch outcome is resolved.
Aggressive speculation improves throughput but can leak data through side channels.
Note
Processor designers usually say speculative execution, and the noun pairs naturally with branch prediction. Prediction guesses the path; speculation does the work on that guess before the answer arrives. If the guess is wrong, the results are thrown away. The word fits because, like a conjecture, the work rests on something not yet known.
- 7A card game in which players buy trumps or whole hands from one another, the holder of the highest trump dealt winning the pooled stakes.
The guests settled down to a noisy round of speculation after dinner.
He lost a shilling at speculation before the cards were finally put away.
Less common meanings
- 8An act of examining something visually or watching it carefully.
[T]he expression of exultation and content on their animated faces, is one of my most delicious speculations.
1792, Charlotte Smith, DesmondNote
Here the point is watching, not thinking. In Charlotte Smith's Desmond (1792), the happy faces of others are "one of my most delicious speculations." She means a sight she enjoys looking at, though a modern ear hears a theory. Like the obsolete sense of eyesight, it has dropped out of use. When the countable plural turns up in older prose, read it as "things looked at."
- 9The faculty of sight; the power of seeing.
The fever robbed her eyes of all speculation.
Thou hast no speculation in those eyes.
c. 1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”Note
Shakespeare's Macbeth (c. 1606) gives this meaning its memorable line: "Thou hast no speculation in those eyes." The word reached English through Middle English speculacioun and Old French, from Late Latin speculātiō and ultimately Latin speculor. As a word for eyesight it is obsolete. Use it only when quoting or writing in deliberate archaism, since a modern reader will otherwise hear "conjecture."
Practice
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Origin
This word came into Middle English as 'speculacioun' from Old French 'speculation' (compare French 'spéculation'), which came from Late Latin 'speculātiō', from Latin 'speculor'. In form, it is 'speculate' plus the suffix '-ion'.