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Surmise vs Speculation - What's the difference?

surmise | speculation |

As nouns the difference between surmise and speculation

is that surmise is thought, imagination, or conjecture, which may be based upon feeble or scanty evidence; suspicion; guess while speculation is the process of thinking or meditating on a subject.

As a verb surmise

is to conjecture, to opine or to posit with contestable premises.

surmise

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • Thought, imagination, or conjecture, which may be based upon feeble or scanty evidence; suspicion; guess.
    • surmises of jealousy or of envy
  • * Jonathan Swift
    • No man ought to be charged with principles he actually disowns, unless his practices contradict his profession; not upon small surmises .
  • * 1919 ,
    • The meeting had been devoid of incident. No word had been said to give me anything to think about, and any surmises I might make were unwarranted. I was intrigued.
  • Reflection; thought; posit.
    • (Shakespeare)

    Verb

    (surmis)
  • To conjecture, to opine or to posit with contestable premises.

    • External links

    * * ----

    speculation

    English

    Noun

    (wikipedia speculation) (en noun)
  • The process of thinking or meditating on a subject.
  • * Milton
    • Thenceforth to speculations high or deep I turned my thoughts.
  • * 2012 , Caroline Davies, Duke and Duchess of Cambridge announce they are expecting first baby'' (in ''The Guardian , 3 December 2012)[http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/dec/03/duke-and-duchess-of-cambridge-expecting-baby?intcmp=122]
    • The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have ended months of intense speculation by announcing they are expecting their first child, but were forced to share their news earlier than hoped because of the Duchess's admission to hospital on Monday.
  • (philosophy) The act or process of reasoning a priori from premises given or assumed.
  • A conclusion to which the mind comes by speculating; mere theory; notion; conjecture.
  • * Sir W. Temple
    • From him Socrates derived the principles of morality, and most part of his natural speculations .
  • * Macaulay
    • To his speculations on these subjects he gave the lofty name of the "Oracles of Reason".
  • (business, finance) An investment involving higher-than-normal risk in order to obtain a higher-than-normal return.
  • The act or practice of buying land, goods, shares, etc., in expectation of selling at a higher price, or of selling with the expectation of repurchasing at a lower price; a trading on anticipated fluctuations in price, as distinguished from trading in which the profit expected is the difference between the retail and wholesale prices, or the difference of price in different markets.
  • * A. Smith
    • Sudden fortunes, indeed, are sometimes made in such places, by what is called the trade of speculation .
  • * F. A. Walker
    • Speculation , while confined within moderate limits, is the agent for equalizing supply and demand, and rendering the fluctuations of price less sudden and abrupt than they would otherwise be.
  • Examination by the eye; view.
  • (obsolete) Power of sight.
  • * Shakespeare
    • Thou hast no speculation in those eyes.
  • A card game in which the players buy from one another trumps or whole hands, upon a chance of getting the highest trump dealt, which entitles the holder to the pool of stakes.

    • Synonyms

    * See also

    Derived terms

    * "on speculation" (on spec) Creating a work with the hope of selling it, as opposed to creating a work "on commission" for hire.

    Anagrams

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