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American Dictionary of the English Language

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Speculate


SPEC'ULATE, verb intransitive [Latin speculor, to view, to contemplate, from specio, to see.]

1. To meditate; to contemplate; to consider a subject by turning it in the mind and viewing it in its different aspects and relations; as, to speculate on political events; to speculate on the probable results of a discovery.

2. In commerce, to purchase land, goods, stock or other things, with the expectation of an advance in price, and of selling the articles with a profit by means of such advance; as, to speculate in coffee, or in sugar, or in six percent stock, or in bank stock.

SPEC'ULATE, verb transitive To consider attentively; as, to speculate the nature of a thing. [Not in use.]