speculation.

1. Reasoning or a proposed explanation that goes beyond what the available evidence securely establishes.

2. Trading or taking a financial position in the expectation of gaining from changes in price, while accepting a risk of loss.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• unfounded speculation
• speculation about motives

On the page

The report separated speculation about motives from directly documented decisions.

Unfounded speculation spread when the incomplete records were presented without their limitations.

Usage notes

Primary category: economics / business / social science. Forms: Usually uncountable. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Writing functions: economic explanation, resource analysis, incentive analysis, comparison. Disciplines: economics, business, social science. Commonness: moderately common.