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Speculate vs Deduce - What's the difference?

speculate | deduce |

As verbs the difference between speculate and deduce

is that speculate is to think, meditate or reflect on a subject; to consider, to deliberate or cogitate while deduce is to reach a conclusion by applying rules of logic to given premises.

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

    * ----

    deduce

    English

    Verb

  • To reach a conclusion by applying rules of logic to given premises.
  • * Alexander Pope
  • O goddess, say, shall I deduce my rhymes / From the dire nation in its early times?
  • * John Locke
  • Reasoning is nothing but the faculty of deducing unknown truths from principles already known.
  • * Sir Walter Scott
  • See what regard will be paid to the pedigree which deduces your descent from kings and conquerors.
  • (obsolete) To take away; to deduct; to subtract.
  • to deduce a part from the whole
    (Ben Jonson)
  • (obsolete, Latinism) To lead forth.
  • * Selden
  • He should hither deduce a colony.

    Usage notes

    For example, from the premises "all good people believe in the tooth fairy" and "Jimmy does not believe in the tooth fairy", we deduce the conclusion "Jimmy is not a good person". This particular form of deduction is called a syllogism. Note that in this case we reach a false conclusion by correct deduction from a false premise.

    Antonyms

    * (reach a conclusion by applying rules of logic)

    Synonyms

    * (reach a conclusion by applying rules of logic)

    Anagrams

    * * ----