What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Speculate vs Conjecture - What's the difference?

speculate | conjecture |

As verbs the difference between speculate and conjecture

is that speculate is to think, meditate or reflect on a subject; to consider, to deliberate or cogitate while conjecture is to guess; to venture an unproven idea.

As a noun conjecture is

a statement or an idea which is unproven, but is thought to be true; a guess.

speculate

English

Verb

(speculat)
  • To think, meditate or reflect on a subject; to consider, to deliberate or cogitate.
  • * Hawthorne
  • It is remarkable that persons who speculate the most boldly often conform with the most perfect quietude to the external regulations of society.
  • To make an inference based on inconclusive evidence; to surmise or conjecture.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-07, author=David Simpson
  • , volume=188, issue=26, page=36, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Fantasy of navigation , passage=It is tempting to speculate about the incentives or compulsions that might explain why anyone would take to the skies in [the] basket [of a balloon]: perhaps out of a desire to escape the gravity of this world or to get a preview of the next; […].}}
  • (intransitive, business, finance) To make a risky trade in the hope of making a profit; to venture or gamble.
  • Anagrams

    * ----

    conjecture

    English

    Noun

  • (formal) A statement or an idea which is unproven, but is thought to be true; a .
  • I explained it, but it is pure conjecture whether he understood, or not.
  • (formal) A supposition based upon incomplete evidence; a hypothesis.
  • The physicist used his conjecture about subatomic particles to design an experiment.
  • (mathematics, philology) A statement likely to be true based on available evidence, but which has not been formally (l).
  • (obsolete) of signs and omens.
  • Synonyms

    * * See also

    Verb

    (conjectur)
  • (formal) To ; to venture an unproven idea.
  • I do not know if it is true; I am simply conjecturing here.
  • * South
  • Human reason can then, at the best, but conjecture what will be.