SPECULATION

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does speculation mean? 

• SPECULATION (noun)
  The noun SPECULATION has 4 senses:

1. a message expressing an opinion based on incomplete evidence

2. a hypothesis that has been formed by speculating or conjecturing (usually with little hard evidence)

3. an investment that is very risky but could yield great profits

4. continuous and profound contemplation or musing on a subject or series of subjects of a deep or abstruse nature

  Familiarity information: SPECULATION used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SPECULATION (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A message expressing an opinion based on incomplete evidence

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

conjecture; guess; hypothesis; speculation; supposition; surmisal; surmise

Hypernyms ("speculation" is a kind of...):

opinion; view (a message expressing a belief about something; the expression of a belief that is held with confidence but not substantiated by positive knowledge or proof)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "speculation"):

divination (successful conjecture by unusual insight or good luck)

Derivation:

speculate (talk over conjecturally, or review in an idle or casual way and with an element of doubt or without sufficient reason to reach a conclusion)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A hypothesis that has been formed by speculating or conjecturing (usually with little hard evidence)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Synonyms:

conjecture; speculation

Context example:

he dismissed it as mere conjecture

Hypernyms ("speculation" is a kind of...):

hypothesis; possibility; theory (a tentative insight into the natural world; a concept that is not yet verified but that if true would explain certain facts or phenomena)

Derivation:

speculate (to believe especially on uncertain or tentative grounds)

Sense 3

Meaning:

An investment that is very risky but could yield great profits

Classified under:

Nouns denoting possession and transfer of possession

Synonyms:

speculation; venture

Context example:

he knew the stock was a speculation when he bought it

Hypernyms ("speculation" is a kind of...):

investment; investment funds (money that is invested with an expectation of profit)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "speculation"):

gamble (money that is risked for possible monetary gain)

smart money (money bet or invested by experienced gamblers or investors (especially if they have inside information))

pyramid ((stock market) a series of transactions in which the speculator increases his holdings by using the rising market value of those holdings as margin for further purchases)

Derivation:

speculate (invest at a risk)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Continuous and profound contemplation or musing on a subject or series of subjects of a deep or abstruse nature

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Synonyms:

meditation; speculation

Context example:

the habit of meditation is the basis for all real knowledge

Hypernyms ("speculation" is a kind of...):

contemplation; musing; reflection; reflexion; rumination; thoughtfulness (a calm, lengthy, intent consideration)

Derivation:

speculate (reflect deeply on a subject)

 Context examples 

He leaned back in his seat, lost in gloomy speculation.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Well, it’s just like any other speculation, and safer than most.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

All the agreeable of her speculation was over for that hour.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Sometimes, the speculation came into my thoughts, What might have happened, or what would have happened, if Dora and I had never known each other?

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

But here there was nothing to be shifted off in a wild speculation on the future.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

It opens a pleasing field for intelligent speculation.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

There is a lot of speculation over whether Pluto will look like Triton, and how well they'll match up.

(NASA Pluto-Bound Spacecraft Crosses Neptune's Orbit, NASA)

The object's odd characteristics — resembling both a comet and an asteroid — led researchers to question what it was; there was even speculation it was an alien spacecraft.

('Oumuamua interstellar object was not an alien spacecraft, National Science Foundation)

DEAR PROFESSOR CHALLENGER, it said, As a humble student of Nature, I have always taken the most profound interest in your speculations as to the differences between Darwin and Weissmann.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

No one would take me for love; and I will not be regarded in the light of a mere money speculation.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)