speculation
- 01 B2 Upper Intermediate
forming an opinion or theory without having all the facts or certain proof.
the act of theorising or conjecturing about a subject without firm evidence. Often uncountable when referring to the general activity.
Simple“There has been a lot of speculation about who will win the election next month.”
In context“The media's constant speculation regarding the CEO's health caused the company's stock price to fluctuate wildly before the official statement.”
- 02 C1 Advanced
buying something like land or stocks hoping the price will go up so you can sell it for a big profit.
the practice of engaging in risky financial transactions in an attempt to profit from short-term fluctuations in market value.
Simple“He lost most of his savings through reckless speculation in the property market.”
In context“The economic crisis was largely attributed to excessive speculation in subprime mortgages by major financial institutions.”
UsageOften takes the preposition 'in' followed by the asset type.
Synonyms - 03 C2 Proficiency
a process where a computer predicts which path a program will take and starts the work early.
the execution of tasks by a computer system before it is certain they are actually required, in order to improve performance.
Simple“Modern processors use speculation to speed up how they handle complex instructions.”
In context“Security vulnerabilities were discovered in the way the processor handled branch speculation during high-speed data processing.”
Synonymspredictive execution
“Speculation about the future of Vinícius Júnior, who had 12 months left on his contract, would not go away.”
“In the three months since, the speculation around Ocasio-Cortez’s ambitions – for herself and for America – has only grown louder.”
Etymology tree Middle English speculation English speculation From Middle English speculacioun, speculation, from Old French speculation (compare French spéculation), from Late Latin speculātiō, speculātiōnem, from Latin speculor. Morphologically speculate + -ion.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.