SPECULATING Synonyms: 34 Similar and Opposite Words

speculating

verb

present participle of speculate

as in guessing

to form an opinion from little or no evidence I speculate that someone has been using this cabin as a trysting place

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of speculating The industry is obsessively speculating on who survives the merger to be named to David Ellison‘s executive leadership team come Monday. — Angelique Jackson, Variety, 2 Oct. 2026 And like Farrar’s Twitter character, dangling on that final, hopeful comma, the president’s critics still return to speculating that this next scandal might just be the one that delivers comeuppance. — David MacK, CNN Money, 1 Oct. 2026 Given the merged Banijay and All3Media business has more than 170 production labels, sources are speculating the focus going forward will be far more on in-house content. — Jesse Whittock, Deadline, 28 Sep. 2026 Though, that hasn’t stopped fans from speculating about her personal connections. — Chanel Vargas, InStyle, 17 Sep. 2026 Her Eras show doc lost its awards last weekend, and the Chiefs play the Broncos tonight, but that didn’t stop people from speculating. — Vulture Staff, Vulture, 15 Sep. 2026 In forums, at conferences and workshops and, of course, on social media, people are speculating about which of these remaining problems AI will tackle next. — Manon Bischoff, Scientific American, 15 Sep. 2026 Ever since Prince Harry and Meghan Markle touched down in the UK, everyone has been speculating about what their return means, not just for their relationships with the British royal family, but for their role as royals. — Stylecaster Editors, StyleCaster, 9 Sep. 2026 No obvious pink today, something the internet was speculating about yesterday when a juror was wearing hot pink. — Colleen Cronin, Boston Herald, 1 Sep. 2026

Recent Examples of Synonyms for speculating

Verb

Then, just to keep us guessing, Pugh attended a press event at New York’s Paley Center in an ethereal all-white Erdem gown, a personification of symbolic innocence.

— Oscar Holland, CNN Money, 2 Oct. 2026
Booking Holdings’ chief financial officer thinks the companies spending the most on artificial intelligence are guessing.

— Nick Lichtenberg, Fortune, 2 Oct. 2026

Definition of guessing

Verb

Skydance will have a mountain of debt, projected to be north of $80 billion, after assuming the debt burdens of previous M&A incurred by Paramount and WBD and raising new debt financing.

— Todd Spangler, Variety, 2 Oct. 2026
In my hypothetical example, his 2026 fortune falls from $908 billion reported by Forbes to about $317 billion in my counterfactual 10 percent wealth tax example (again, assuming his wealth over the past 10 years grew smoothly).

— Jeff Hoopes, Washington Post, 1 Oct. 2026

Definition of assuming

Verb

Legal experts say that bail is rarely given where there are serious grounds for suspecting terrorism offenses.

— Kara Fox, CNN Money, 30 Sep. 2026
From then on, maybe suspecting his daughters of foul play, Andrew kept the doors to his room locked — both the one that opened out into the stairs and the one connecting his room to Lizzie’s.

— Rafaela Bassili, Vulture, 18 Sep. 2026

Definition of suspecting

Verb

More recently, other experts have advised American farmers to go all out growing soybeans, supposing they will be needed by the Chinese or somebody.

— Cynthia Zarin, Harpers Magazine, 4 Aug. 2026
Even supposing the pledges in the 1990s documents amounted to a crime, the legal deadline for bringing mortgage fraud charges has expired.

— Aysha Bagchi, USA Today, 8 Dec. 2025