speculatively
1
6.7
- adverb
- /ˈspɛkjʊlətɪvli/
- "I imagine," he said speculatively, "that you would go there with every intention of staying forever."
- even more speculatively
- speculatively, perhaps even
Loading YouTube…
Watch on YouTubeAnd my wife and I started coming just speculatively to see what might be out here.
- And my wife and I started coming just speculatively to see what might be out here.
- You could, you can't even, you know, speculatively produce a theory that you'd say, yeah, at least that would solve it.
- And so I very speculatively made applications to investment management houses in, in London and of course in Edinburgh.
- But if pursued only speculatively transcendent and therefore dialectical use of reason, right?
Examples
-
A colleague and I recently passed the time by talking speculatively about retirement.
Academic text (2004) -
She looked at the strange patterns on the wall speculatively, wondering what they might signify.
-
And my wife and I started coming just speculatively to see what might be out here.
-
And so I very speculatively made applications to investment management houses in, in London and of course in Edinburgh.
-
Following Evelyn forward, Jim was aware of the passengers looking at him speculatively.
Fiction book (1991) -
The men looked at her speculatively, glances that lasted several seconds longer than was polite.
Fiction book (1997) -
Now, as they stood waiting for the lift, Peregrine glanced speculatively at his mentor.
Fiction book (1991) -
There were three or four English soldiers in the taproom who eyed me speculatively, chatting to each other in low voices.
Fiction book (1991) -
Pausing at the head of the trail, Wren and Garth glanced around speculatively.
Fiction book (1992) -
They discussed the future speculatively, considering what might happen in the coming years.
Synonyms
72
6.3
To imagine a situation to talk about what might happen
In a way that uses a guess because the facts are not known
Antonyms
How Certain
Surface Forms
Morphology
speculatively = speculative (transparent) = speculate + ive + ly
A regular adverb formed by adding the productive suffix '-ly' to the adjective 'speculative', which itself derives predictably from 'speculate'.
Etymology
Speculatively comes from the Latin root spec- meaning 'to look', the same root you find in inspect and spectator. So to act speculatively is like 'looking' at different possibilities and guessing without firm proof.