0 present participle of speculate
1 to guess possible answers to a question when you do not have enough information to be certain:
I don't know why she did it - I'm just speculating.
A spokesperson declined to speculate on the cause of the train crash.
Journalists are speculating about whether interest rates will be cut.
[ + that ] The newspapers have speculated that they will get married next year.
2 to buy and sell in the hope that the value of what you buy will increase and that it can then be sold at a higher price in order to make a profit:
It's useless to speculate without more information.
Royal-watchers have once again been speculating on the health of the princess.
Scientists have speculated about the possibility of parallel universes.
However, only when results are based on adequately powered samples, is it worth speculating further about possible mechanisms.
And the theoretician is left with the less-than-enviable task of speculating about why decision games with human subjects might generate too much cooperation.
Historians are on firmer ground reconstructing and analyzing past events than they are speculating about what might have happened.
However, we will not refrain from speculating over what may constitute an original contribution to urban planning theory.
He acknowledges this problem in his conclusion without speculating on the potential implications of his well-suppor ted thesis.
