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Predict vs Speculate - What's the difference?

predict | speculate |

In intransitive terms the difference between predict and speculate

is that predict is to make predictions while speculate is to make an inference based on inconclusive evidence; to surmise or conjecture.

As verbs the difference between predict and speculate

is that predict is to make a prediction: to forecast, foretell, or estimate a future event on the basis of knowledge and reasoning; to prophesy a future event on the basis of mystical knowledge or power while speculate is to think, meditate or reflect on a subject; to consider, to deliberate or cogitate.

As a noun predict

is a prediction.

predict

Alternative forms

* (archaic)

Verb

(en verb)
  • To make a prediction: to forecast, foretell, or estimate a future event on the basis of knowledge and reasoning; to prophesy a future event on the basis of mystical knowledge or power.
  • *1590 , E. Daunce, A Briefe Discourse on the Spanish State , 40
  • *:After he had renounced his father]]s bishoprick of Valentia in Spaine... and to attaine by degrees the Maiesty of , was created Duke of that place, gaue for his poesie, Aut Cesar, aut nihil . which being not fauoured from the heauens, had presently the [[event, euent the same predicted .
  • :2000 , , (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire) , xiii.
  • ::Professor Trelawney kept predicting Harry’s death, which he found extremely annoying.
  • :2012 , (Jeremy Bernstein), " A Palette of Particles" in (American Scientist) , Vol. 100, No. 2, p. 146
  • ::The physics of elementary particles in the 20th century was distinguished by the observation of particles whose existence had been predicted by theorists sometimes decades earlier.
  • To imply.
  • *1886 , Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society , 177. 338
  • *:It is interesting to see how clearly theory predicts the difference between the ascending and descending curves of a dynamo.
  • To make predictions.
  • *1652 , J. Gaule, ???-?????? the mag-astro-mancer , 196
  • *:The devil can both predict and make predictors.
  • (transitive, military, rare) To direct a ranged weapon against a target by means of a predictor.
  • *1943 , L. Cheshire, Bomber Pilot , iii. 57
  • *:They're predicting us now; looks like a barrage.
  • Synonyms

    * (l),

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (obsolete) A prediction.
  • * 1609 , :
  • Or say with Princes if it shall go well, / By oft predict that I in heaven find.

    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

    * ----