Sample Sentences for
speculate
grouped by contextual meaning
(editor-reviewed)

speculate as in:  don't know, but I'll speculate

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Philosophers have speculated on the question for thousands of years.
speculated = thought and guessed without certainty
Show 3 more with this contextual meaning
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    We were speculating as to whether a president would have to resign after that kind of scandal.
    speculating = thoughtfully guessing
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    I did not want to speculate what they might stand for.  (source)
    speculate = think about, wonder, guess or theorize
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    One can only speculate about why Franz became so attached to McCandless so quickly, but the affection he felt was genuine, intense, and unalloyed.  (source)
    speculate = guess
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Show 10 more with 6 word variations
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    He examined Walter with an air of speculation.  (source)
    speculation = consideration
    standard suffix: The suffix "-tion", converts a verb into a noun that denotes the action or result of the verb. Typically, there is a slight change in the ending of the root verb, as in action, education, and observation.
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    I had wondered about Aspen, but seeing as I was running late to one of Silvia's many lessons, I didn't really have a chance to speculate much.  (source)
    speculate = think
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    In one of the tabloid magazines they speculated on what I fed the girls for dinner.  (source)
    speculated = wondered or guessed
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    But by degrees the flood of music drove all speculations out of his mind.  (source)
    speculations = thoughts
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    He, Ron, and Hermione spent the whole of break speculating on what Dumbledore would teach Harry.  (source)
    speculating = wondering or guessing
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    It might still work, Cedric speculates, feeling a welcome sense of closure.†  (source)
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    "This is not a realm open to your speculation," the Baron warned.  (source)
    speculation = guessing or theorizing
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    The recruits speculate in eager whispers.  (source)
    speculate = wonder or consider
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    We had all laughed about it, speculated on who those mean boys were and then...  (source)
    speculated = wondered or guessed
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    She was interrupted in the midst of these uneasy speculations by the sound of the telephone bell ringing in the other room.  (source)
    speculations = thoughts
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speculate as in:  speculate in the stock market

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She lost a fortune speculating in oil futures.
speculating = making risky investments
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    She speculates in the stock market in areas of medicine in which she is expert.
    speculates = invests
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    Father said that surveyors always knew about the good deals on land and could get rich speculating.  (source)
    speculating = investing
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    Only fifty miles from the limousines and exclusive tennis clubs and lush green fairways of Palm Springs, the west shore of the Salton Sea had once been the site of intense real estate speculation.  (source)
    speculation = risky financial investment
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Show 10 more with 8 word variations
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    Her father, a haberdasher on Seattle's First Avenue and a real estate speculator, frowned on Arthur, who seemed to him a lumberjack posing as a reporter, a man without prospects and unworthy of his daughter; nevertheless the two were married and settled down to the business of rearing children.†  (source)
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    That it is a monument to the privilege of the nobility, the effeteness of the intelligentsia, and the predatory pricing of speculators.†  (source)
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    It was by his advice that my father risked most of his property in the speculation that ruined him.  (source)
    speculation = risky investment
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    ...a Rockefeller, whose wealth was amassed through unscrupulous speculations in crude petroleum;  (source)
    speculations = investments
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    How could I speculate when I already have so much trouble in regulating my income?  (source)
    speculate = risk money in investment
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    My blood runs cold when Peter talks about becoming a criminal or a speculator; of course, he's joking, but I still have the feeling he's afraid of his own weakness. ... Earning happiness means doing good and working, not speculating and being lazy.  (source)
    speculating = profiting from only invested money
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    As he felt the king's pulse, Coictier assumed an air of greater and greater alarm. Louis XI. watched him with some anxiety. Coictier grew visibly more gloomy. The brave man had no other farm than the king's bad health. He speculated on it to the best of his ability.  (source)
    speculated = tried to make profit
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    That M. Danglars speculates, whereas he never does.  (source)
    speculates = makes risky investments
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    I know it's a waste of breath trying to convince you you're not a cunning real estate speculator.†  (source)
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    So, stupid and reckless I may be, but I am going to see Kamal Abdic, because unlike all the speculators, I have seen Scott.†  (source)
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