Speculation

4 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Speculation \Spec`u*la"tion\, n. [L. speculatio a spying out,
     observation: cf. F. sp['e]culation.]
     1. The act of speculating. Specifically: 
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        (a) Examination by the eye; view. [Obs.]
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        (b) Mental view of anything in its various aspects and
            relations; contemplation; intellectual examination.
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                  Thenceforth to speculations high or deep
                  I turned my thoughts.             --Milton.
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        (c) (Philos.) The act or process of reasoning a priori
            from premises given or assumed.
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        (d) (Com.) The act or practice of buying land, goods,
            shares, etc., in expectation of selling at a higher
            price, or of selling with the expectation of
            repurchasing at a lower price; a trading on
            anticipated fluctuations in price, as distinguished
            from trading in which the profit expected is the
            difference between the retail and wholesale prices, or
            the difference of price in different markets.
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                  Sudden fortunes, indeed, are sometimes made in
                  such places, by what is called the trade of
                  speculation.                      --A. Smith.
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                  Speculation, while confined within moderate
                  limits, is the agent for equalizing supply and
                  demand, and rendering the fluctuations of price
                  less sudden and abrupt than they would otherwise
                  be.                               --F. A.
                                                    Walker.
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        (e) Any business venture in involving unusual risks, with
            a chance for large profits.
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     2. A conclusion to which the mind comes by speculating; mere
        theory; view; notion; conjecture.
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              From him Socrates derived the principles of
              morality, and most part of his natural speculations.
                                                    --Sir W.
                                                    Temple.
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              To his speculations on these subjects he gave the
              lofty name of the "Oracles of Reason." --Macaulay.
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     3. Power of sight. [Obs.]
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              Thou hast no speculation in those eyes. --Shak.
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     4. A game at cards in which the players buy from one another
        trumps or whole hands, upon a chance of getting the
        highest trump dealt, which entitles the holder to the pool
        of stakes.
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From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  speculation
       n 1: a message expressing an opinion based on incomplete evidence
            [syn: {guess}, {conjecture}, {supposition}, {surmise}, {surmisal},
             {hypothesis}]
       2: a hypothesis that has been formed by speculating or
          conjecturing (usually with little hard evidence);
          "speculations about the outcome of the election"; "he
          dismissed it as mere conjecture" [syn: {conjecture}]
       3: an investment that is very risky but could yield great
          profits; "he knew the stock was a speculation when he
          bought it" [syn: {venture}]
       4: continuous and profound contemplation or musing on a subject
          or series of subjects of a deep or abstruse nature; "the
          habit of meditation is the basis for all real knowledge"
          [syn: {meditation}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  126 Moby Thesaurus words for "speculation":
     abstraction, actuarial prediction, advisement, agiotage, analysis,
     apocalypse, arbitrage, betting, blind guess, bold conjecture,
     brainwork, brooding, buying in, calculated risk, cardsharping,
     casting lots, cerebration, chance, cogitation, conjecture,
     consideration, contemplation, counsel, deliberation, doctrinairism,
     doctrinality, doctrinarity, equity capital, evaluation,
     excogitation, explanation, flier, flutter, foreboding, forecast,
     forecasting, foreshowing, foresight, foretelling, fortune, gamble,
     gambling, gaming, guess, guesswork, hazard, hazarding, hunch,
     hypothesis, improbability, investment, liquidation, luck,
     lucubration, meditation, mere theory, musing, omen, opinion,
     perhaps, play, playing, plunge, pondering, postulation, prediction,
     prefiguration, prefigurement, prefiguring, presage, presaging,
     presentiment, preshowing, presignifying, prime investment,
     probability, profit taking, prognosis, prognostication, promise,
     prophecy, prophesying, prospectus, reflection, review, revolving,
     risk, risking, rough guess, round trade, rumination, scalping,
     shot, soothsay, sortition, sporting, spot sale, stab, staking,
     statistical prediction, stockjobbery, stockjobbing, study,
     studying, suppose, supposition, surmise, theoretic,
     theoretical basis, theoretics, theoria, theoric, theorization,
     theory, thinking, turn, uncertainty, unverified supposition,
     vaticination, venture, venture capital, wager, wagering, weighing,
     wild guess, wondering
  
  

From Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [bouvier]:

  SPECULATION, contracts. The hope or desire of making a profit by the 
  purchase and resale of a thing. Pard. Dr. Com. n. 12. The profit so made; 
  as, be made a good speculation.