Other forms: speculations
Speculation is thinking about what might be, without evidence. Idle speculation, wild speculation, fuel speculation.
In news reporting it is what fills the space before facts arrive, and speculation mounted is a standard phrase meaning nobody knows anything. In finance, speculation is buying in the hope of a price rise rather than for income, and speculators are blamed for a great deal. Note speculate, speculative; and that a speculative application is one sent without any job being advertised.
1nounspeculationThinking about what might be, without evidence.
“There was about a fortnight of speculation and four facts.”
2nounbuyingBuying in the hope of a price rise.
“Property speculation drove house prices so high that local people couldn't afford them.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
speculation is a guessing or gambling.
Latin speculatio comes from speculari, to observe, from specula, a watchtower. Speculation was watching from a height before it was guessing, and spectacle and inspect share the root.
Middle English
speculation
English, today
speculation
From Middle English speculation. From Middle English speculacioun, speculation, from Old French speculation (compare French spéculation), from Latin speculātiō, from Latin speculor. Morphologically speculate + ion.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA