Speculative

How to spell speculative

11 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce speculative

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does speculative mean?

1. adjectiveBased on conjecture or theory rather than firm knowledge or evidence.
2. adjectiveInvolving a high risk of loss in the hope of a large gain, especially in investment.

Speculative in a sentence

• The report was largely speculative because no hard data had been gathered.

• Buying the shares was a speculative move that could double his money or wipe it out.

• Her conclusions felt speculative and needed far more research to support them.

• The fund avoided speculative assets and stuck to safer bonds.

Where does speculative come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb speculari, which meant 'to spy out, watch, or observe', and that verb was built on specula, a 'watchtower', the place from which a lookout scanned the horizon. Behind both lies the even older root specere, 'to look', which is the same source that gave English a whole family of looking words, including 'spectacle', 'inspect', and 'spectator'. The Latin adjective speculativus came to describe thought that watched or considered things from a distance rather than acting on them, and it passed into English through Old French during the late 1300s. Over time the sense narrowed from 'contemplative' to its two common modern flavours: forming theories without firm proof, and risking money on an uncertain outcome. Knowing that the core is the Latin spec for 'look' helps fix the spelling, since the tricky part is the unstressed middle, the '-cu-' followed by '-lative', where writers often hesitate.

How the word is built

• specul- (from Latin speculari: to observe, to spy out)
• -ative (adjective suffix forming 'tending to')