speculate
- 01 B2 Upper Intermediate
to form an opinion or guess about something without having enough information to be certain.
to form a theory or conjecture about a subject without firm evidence. Intransitive, often followed by 'on', 'about', or a 'that' clause.
Simple“Journalists began to speculate about the reasons for the minister's sudden resignation.”
In context“Market analysts continue to speculate on the long-term implications of the central bank's decision to maintain current interest rates.”
Synonyms - 02 C1 Advanced
to buy something like land or stocks hoping the price will go up so you can sell it for a profit.
to invest in assets with the expectation of profit but with a significant risk of loss. Intransitive, typically taking the preposition 'in'.
Simple“He made a fortune by speculating in the local property market during the boom.”
In context“The hedge fund was accused of speculating in commodity futures, contributing to the extreme volatility of food prices.”
- 03 C2 Proficiency
when a computer processor guesses which instructions to run next to save time.
to execute instructions in advance of knowing whether they will be needed, a technique used to improve performance.
Simple“Modern processors speculate on branch outcomes to speed up software execution.”
In context“Speculative execution allows the CPU to process multiple paths of logic simultaneously before the conditional branch is actually resolved.”
“Some speculate that a new call-up could come after September’s elections to the Duma.”
“And based on that, we will act on what we learn." However, he added it was "too early to speculate on the full findings".”
Borrowed from Latin speculātus, perfect active participle of speculor (“to watch, observe, examine, spy”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), from specula (“a watchtower”), ultimately from speciō (“to look at”).
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.