Speculate

How to spell speculate

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce speculate

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does speculate mean?

1. verbTo form a theory or opinion about something without firm evidence.
2. verbTo invest money in something risky in the hope of a large profit.

Speculate in a sentence

• Reporters began to speculate about who would lead the company next.

• He chose to speculate on currency rather than buy safe bonds.

• It is pointless to speculate on the cause without more data.

• Some traders speculate on property prices rising sharply.

Where does speculate come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes from the Latin verb speculari, meaning 'to watch, observe, or examine closely'. That verb was built on specula, 'a watchtower', the elevated place from which a lookout scanned the horizon, and behind it lies the very common root specere, 'to look at'. English adopted speculate in the late sixteenth century, first in the sense of turning something over in the mind, that is, looking at it intellectually, before the financial sense of buying in the hope of an uncertain profit emerged in the eighteenth century. The same specere root surfaces in a crowd of familiar relatives such as spectacle, inspect, and prospect, all of which keep that telltale 'spec' spelling. Remembering that the heart of the word is the same 'spec' as in spectacles helps fix the awkward unstressed middle syllable, which is the part writers tend to garble.

How the word is built

• specul- (from Latin specere: to look at, watch)
• -ate (verb-forming suffix)