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Suspect vs Speculate - What's the difference?

suspect | speculate |

In intransitive terms the difference between suspect and speculate

is that suspect is to have suspicion while speculate is to make an inference based on inconclusive evidence; to surmise or conjecture.

As verbs the difference between suspect and speculate

is that suspect is to imagine or suppose (something) to be true, or to exist, without proof while speculate is to think, meditate or reflect on a subject; to consider, to deliberate or cogitate.

As a noun suspect

is a person who is suspected of something, in particular of committing a crime.

As an adjective suspect

is viewed with suspicion; suspected.

suspect

English

Verb

(en verb)
  • To imagine or suppose (something) to be true, or to exist, without proof.
  • to suspect the presence of disease
  • * Milton
  • From her hand I could suspect no ill.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
  • , chapter=5 citation , passage=Mr. Campion appeared suitably impressed and she warmed to him. He was very easy to talk to with those long clown lines in his pale face, a natural goon, born rather too early she suspected .}}
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-07, author=(Gary Younge)
  • , volume=188, issue=26, page=18, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Hypocrisy lies at heart of Manning prosecution , passage=WikiLeaks did not cause these uprisings but it certainly informed them. The dispatches revealed details of corruption and kleptocracy that many Tunisians suspected , but could not prove, and would cite as they took to the streets.}}
  • To distrust or have doubts about (something or someone).
  • to suspect the truth of a story
    (Addison)
  • To believe (someone) to be guilty.
  • To have suspicion.
  • (obsolete) To look up to; to respect.
  • Synonyms

    * (imagine or suppose to be true) imagine, suppose, think * (sense) distrust, doubt * (believe to be guilty) accuse, point the finger at

    Noun

    (wikipedia suspect) (en noun)
  • A person who is suspected of something, in particular of committing a crime.
  • Round up the usual suspects.'' — ''Casablanca

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Viewed with suspicion; suspected.
  • * (rfdate) (John Milton):
  • What I can do or offer is suspect .
  • * '>citation
  • In his first book since the 2008 essay collection Natural Acts: A Sidelong View of Science and Nature , David Quammen looks at the natural world from yet another angle: the search for the next human pandemic, what epidemiologists call “the next big one.” His quest leads him around the world to study a variety of suspect zoonoses—animal-hosted pathogens that infect humans.
  • (nonstandard) Viewing with suspicion; suspecting.
  • * 2004 , Will Nickell, letter to the editor of Field & Stream , Volume CIX Number 8 (December 2004–January 2005), page 18:
  • Now I’m suspect of other advice that I read in your pages.

    Synonyms

    * (viewed with suspicion) dodgy (informal), doubtful, dubious, fishy (informal), suspicious

    Anagrams

    * English heteronyms ----

    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

    * ----