What does speculative mean?
Word: Speculative
Part of Speech: Adjective
Meaning: Speculative means based on guesses or ideas rather than on known facts.
Synonyms: hypothetical
How do you spell speculative?
Syllables: spec - u - la - tive
Tricky part: The vowel before the t is said so weakly that pupils write speculitive or speculetive. This word has an a there.
Watch out for: speculitive, speculetive, speculatve
Memory tip: Say it aloud with a clear a, as in the word late, and you will not forget that vowel.
Speculative in a sentence
Example 1: Nobody knows when the road will open, so any date is purely speculative.
Example 2: The historian warned that her idea about the old map was only speculative.
Example 3: We spent the bus ride making speculative plans for a school on the moon.
Fun Fact
Booksellers use the label speculative fiction for stories such as science fiction and fantasy, because their writers ask what might happen rather than what has happened.
Practise the CREST Way
Word Cookie
One word in this sentence is misspelt. Find it:
After weeks of careful reading in the school library, Kabir admitted that his spekulative essay about ancient travellers rested on very little evidence and needed many more reliable sources.
a) ancient
b) evidence
c) reliable
d) spekulative
Show answer
d) spekulative. The hard sound in the middle of the word is a c.
Mingle-Mangle
The sentence contains a jumbled word. Choose the word it hides:
The article about the comet was largely lvptesuciea, as nobody had yet seen its far side.
a) spectacular
b) respective
c) speculative
d) superlative
Show answer
c) speculative. A v and two e's are in the jumble, and only one option has all those letters and no r.
Word Connection
Choose the antonym of the word speculative as used in the sentence:
Talk of a hidden lake under the crater remains speculative for now.
a) proven
b) unconfirmed
c) doubtful
d) uncertain
Show answer
a) proven. Something proven has been shown to be true, the reverse of an untested idea.
Spell-o-Spell
Only one word in the list is correct. Choose the meaning of that word.
1. imaginery 2. speculative 3. probabel 4. skeptickal
a) built on what might be, not on what is known
b) existing only in the mind
c) likely to happen
d) inclined to doubt what you are told
Show answer
a) built on what might be, not on what is known. Sceptical, imaginary and probable are the correct spellings of the other three, so speculative is the answer.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. Reports of a film star's next role are only speculative so far. How should readers treat them?
a) as an official announcement
b) as a joke meant for her fans
c) as a review of her last film
d) as a possibility and not a fact
Show answer
d) as a possibility and not a fact
2. Which sentence sounds like a speculative remark?
a) Perhaps a river once ran through this cave.
b) This cave measures forty metres from end to end.
c) The cave stays open from nine until five.
d) Our guide led twelve pupils into the cave.
Show answer
a) Perhaps a river once ran through this cave.
