• IPA: /ˈspɛkjuləˌtɪv/

speculative

1. Characterized by speculation; based on guessing, unfounded opinions, or extrapolation.
   • 1907, Robert William Chambers, chapter I, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, OCLC 24962326 ↗:

     "Don't dare laugh at us!" smiled his sister. "I wish we were back in Tenth Street. But so many children came […] and the Tenth Street house wasn't half big enough; and a dreadful speculative builder built this house and persuaded Austin to buy it. Oh, dear, and here we are among the rich and great; and the steel kings and copper kings and oil kings and their heirs and dauphins. Do you like the house?"

2. Pursued as a gamble, with possible large profits or losses; risky.
   • 2015, Paul Wilson, Alexis Sánchez sends Arsenal into final after gallant Reading go the distance (in The Guardian, 18 April 2015)

     Little seemed on when Sánchez cut in from the left and sent a speculative low shot through a crowd of players, but though Federici had it covered he could not hold on to the ball and it squirmed over the line through his legs.

3. Pertaining to financial speculation; Involving or resulting from high-risk investments or trade.

• speculate
• speculation
• speculativity

• French: spéculatif
• German: spekulativ
• Spanish: especulativo