Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
❓ Based on guesses 💸 Risky financially 🤔 Curious or questioning
speculative

speculative

8 6.9
Looking curious, as if trying to guess what someone thinks
  • adjective
  • /ˈspɛkjʊlətɪv/
translation icon : especulativo
  • In their discussion, they entertained speculative ideas about what might happen in the future.
  • speculative fiction
  • speculative philosophy
  • purely speculative

Now hearing that, I have so many questions, so many more speculative thoughts bouncing around my head.

Examples

  • Anything that I would say would be purely speculative.

    MacArthur (1977)

  • Ted Brautigan was now looking at him in a thoughtful, speculative way.

    Fiction book (1999)

  • Well, that of course is a very, very speculative question.

  • Now I ask you, why is it speculative to consider extraterrestrial technologies?

  • Now hearing that, I have so many questions, so many more speculative thoughts bouncing around my head.

    Marques Brownlee

  • Precisely what seems to be at stake is the possibility of the generation of novel speculative political philosophies.

    Academic text (1994)

  • Billed as a webzine for readers and writers of speculative fiction.

    Academic text (2010)

  • Mixing reality with fantasy is particularly popular with speculative fiction, alternative histories, and steampunk works.

    Academic text (2014)

  • Elise Pangbom leaned forward and placed her elbows on her knees, directing a speculative stare at me.

    Fiction book (1995)

  • The detective had a speculative expression as he considered the motives behind the crime.

Synonyms

curious
vsspeculative
675 1.3

Wanting to learn more about something and asking questions

is more about considering reasons or possibilities rather than simple personal interest
inquisitive
vsspeculative
25 4.4

Wanting to know or learn things, sometimes too nosy

is more about exploring possibilities and reasons without prying
wondering
vsspeculative
2.0

Curious and wanting to know more

is a general, open attitude toward possibilities rather than private pondering
questioning
vsspeculative
3.9

Showing doubt or wanting to know more

is more about open interest in possibilities rather than expressing doubt

Antonyms

certain
840 1.0

Feeling sure and having no doubt

How Curious

probing
1 6.5
speculative
8 6.9
curious
675 1.3
wondering
2.0

Surface Forms

speculative positive

Morphology

speculative = speculate (transparent) = speculate + ive

Standard adjectival derivation from the verb 'speculate' meaning 'to wonder or conjecture', which directly yields this meaning.

Etymology

Speculative comes from an old Latin word specere meaning 'to look', the same root found in spectator and inspect. A helpful way to remember this sense is to think of someone 'looking at' possible ideas, so to be speculative is to show curiosity or to wonder about what might be true.