speculator

noun

spec·​u·​la·​tor ˈspe-kyə-ˌlā-tər 

plural speculators

: someone who speculates: such as

a

: a person who thinks or guesses especially in an idle or casual way about something that is unknown or uncertain

I sat Friday night in the dining room in front of my laptop, the TV in the next room flitting among experts and speculators about what happened in Paris …

—Scott Martelle

"… All that we ought to ask, therefore, is, that the witnesses of our conduct, and the speculators on our motives, should be capable of taking the highest view which the circumstances of the case may admit. …"

—Nathaniel Hawthorne

b

: a person who makes a relatively risky investment in something (such as stocks or real estate) in the hope of making a large short-term profit from market fluctuations

futures/currency speculators

By the late 1870s Edward Pray was living in New York City, still interested in mining but instead now as a speculator in mining stocks.

—Willa Kane

Over the years, many houses have been bought by speculators or real estate companies and rented out.

—Margaret Gillerman

Examples of speculator in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Gold’s red-hot run through $3000 an ounce might have been at the expense of another speculator’s favorite, Bitcoin, but the 40% rise in the gold price over the last 12-months is also raising doubts about its sustainability. —Tim Treadgold, Forbes, 19 Mar. 2025

In Altadena, Town Council Chair Victoria Knapp also worries that longtime residents will abandon the community, but her concern is focused on speculators making lowball offers that low-income Black and Latino families may find hard to refuse. —Doug Smith, Los Angeles Times, 22 Jan. 2025

The contracts, whose value can also be settled for cash, can be traded among speculators who hope to make money by betting that the price of gold will increase or decrease in value before the settlement date. —Nathan Mahr, Sacramento Bee, 26 Feb. 2025

With the assistance of Brazil’s military government, speculators seized valuable waterfront land from Black residents, who retreated to the hills. —Julian Lucas, The New Yorker, 24 Feb. 2025

Word History

Etymology

speculate + -or entry 1; in earlier sense "observer, lookout," borrowed from Latin speculātor "scout, spy, sentinel," from speculārī "to keep a close watch on, spy out, watch for" + -tor, agent suffix — more at speculate

First Known Use

1555, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for speculator

• activator
• actuator
• agitator
• alligator
• allocator
• alternator
• animator
• annotator
• applicator
• arbitrator
• aspirator
• aviator