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speculative - 20 thesaurus results
| Main Entry: | speculative |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | theoretical |
| Synonyms: | abstract, analytical, assumed, dangerous, dicey, experimental, hairy, hazardous, hypothetical, ideal, iffy, intellectual, logical, philosophical, risky, uncertain, unsubstantiated, conceptive, formularized, idealized, ideological, in theory, notional, presumed, unproved, unproven |
| Main Entry: | chancy |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | dangerous, risky |
| Synonyms: | capricious, contingent, dicey, erratic, fluky, hazardous, iffy*, incalculable, precarious, problematic, rocky, speculative, ticklish, touchy, tricky, uncertain, unpredictable, unsound, whimsical, fluctuant, problematical |
| Antonyms: | certain, safe, secure, sure, tried, not dangerous |
* = informal/non-formal usage
| Main Entry: | contemplative |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | deep in thought |
| Synonyms: | attentive, intent, introspective, lost, meditative, musing, pensive, rapt, reflective, speculative, thinking, thoughtful, cogitative, in brown study, pondering, reflecting, ruminative |
| Antonyms: | disdainful, negligent, scornful, shallow, disregarding, rejecting, unreflective |
| Main Entry: | dangerous |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | hazardous, troubling |
| Synonyms: | alarming, bad, breakneck*, chancy, critical, deadly, delicate, dynamite, exposed, fatal, formidable, hairy*, heavy*, hot*, impending, impregnable, insecure, loaded, malignant, menacing, mortal, nasty, perilous, portentous, precarious, pressing, queasy, risky, serious, serpentine, shaky, speculative, terrible, thorny*, threatening, ticklish*, touch-and-go, touchy, treacherous, ugly*, unhealthy, unsafe, unstable, urgent, viperous, vulnerable, wicked, dangersome, jeopardous, on collision course, parlous |
| Antonyms: | careful, guarded, safe, secure, untroubled, unhazardous |
* = informal/non-formal usage
| Main Entry: | doctrinaire |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | dogmatic, opinionated |
| Synonyms: | authoritarian, authoritative, biased, bigoted, bullheaded*, dictatorial, dogged, fanatical, impractical, inflexible, insistent, magisterial, mulish, obstinate, one-sided, pertinacious, pigheaded*, rigid, speculative, stubborn, unrealistic, dictative, stiff-necked* |
| Antonyms: | amenable, flexible, manageable, obedient, submissive |
* = informal/non-formal usage
| Main Entry: | dreamy |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | illusory, romantic |
| Synonyms: | abstracted, astral, calming, chimerical, daydreaming, excellent, fanciful, fantastic, gentle, idealistic, imaginary, immaterial, impractical, intangible, introspective, marvelous, misty, musing, mythical, nightmarish, otherworldly, out of this world, pensive, preoccupied, quixotic, shadowy, soothing, speculative, unreal, unsubstantial, utopian, vague, visionary, whimsical, introvertive, lulling, phantasmagoric, phantasmagorical, relaxing |
| Antonyms: | horrible, terrible, unromantic |
| Main Entry: | experimental |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | exploratory |
| Synonyms: | beginning, empirical, laboratory, momentary, pilot, preliminary, preparatory, primary, provisional, speculative, temporary, tentative, test, trial, developmental, experiential, first stage, on approval, probationary, trial-and-error, unconcluded, under probation, unproved |
| Antonyms: | tested, tried, proven |
| Main Entry: | hypothetical |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | guessed, assumed |
| Synonyms: | academic, casual, conditional, conjectural, contingent, debatable, disputable, doubtful, equivocal, imaginary, imagined, indefinite, indeterminate, presumptive, pretending, problematic, putative, questionable, speculative, supposed, suspect, theoretical, uncertain, vague, assumptive, concocted, conjecturable, contestable, postulated, presupposed, provisory, refutable, stochastic, suppositional, suppositious, theoretic, unconfirmed |
| Antonyms: | calculated, confirmed, factual, measured, proved, real, reliable, truthful, proven |
| Main Entry: | impractical/impracticable |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | unrealistic |
| Synonyms: | abstract, absurd, chimerical, idealistic, illogical, impossible, impracticable, improbable, inapplicable, inefficacious, infeasible, inoperable, irrealizable, ivory-tower, no-go, nonfunctional, nonviable, not a prayer, otherworldly, out of the question, quixotic, romantic, speculative, starry-eyed*, theoretical, unattainable, unbusinesslike, unfeasible, unreal, unserviceable, unusable, unwise, unworkable, useless, visionary, wild, won't fly |
| Antonyms: | practicable, practical, probable, realistic, reasonable, tenable, viable |
* = informal/non-formal usage
| Main Entry: | inquiring |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | wondering, curious |
| Synonyms: | analytical, doubtful, inquisitive, interested, interrogative, nosy, prying, questioning, quizzical, searching, speculative, studious, Socratic, catechistic, examining, fact-finding, heuristic, investigative, investigatory, outward-looking, probing |
| Antonyms: | disinterested, incurious, unskeptical |
| Main Entry: | inquisitive |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | curious |
| Synonyms: | analytical, forward, impertinent, inquiring, interested, intrusive, meddlesome, meddling, nosy, personal, presumptuous, prying, questioning, searching, speculative, big-eyed, challenging, inquisitorial, investigative, peering, poking, probing, scrutinizing, sifting, snooping |
| Antonyms: | indifferent, unconcerned, uninterested, incurious |
| Main Entry: | pensive |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | meditative, solemn |
| Synonyms: | absorbed, abstracted, attentive, contemplative, dreamy, grave, musing, preoccupied, reflective, serious, sober, speculative, thinking, thoughtful, wistful, withdrawn, cogitative, pondering, reflecting, ruminating, ruminative |
| Antonyms: | ignorant, shallow |
| Main Entry: | reflective |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | thoughtful |
| Synonyms: | contemplative, deliberate, meditative, pensive, reasoning, speculative, studious, cogitating, pondering, ruminative |
| Antonyms: | ignorant, unthoughtful |
| Main Entry: | risky |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | dangerous |
| Synonyms: | chancy, delicate, dicey*, endangered, hairy*, hazardous, iffy*, insecure, long shot*, out on a limb*, perilous, precarious, rocky*, sensitive, speculative, ticklish, touch-and-go, touchy, treacherous, tricky, uncertain, unhealthy, unsafe, unsound, venturesome, wicked, wide-open, fraught with danger, going for broke, hanging by a thread, jeopardous, not a prayer, off the deep end, on slippery ground, on the spot, on thin ice, playing with fire |
| Antonyms: | assured, certain, safe, sure |
* = informal/non-formal usage
| Main Entry: | theoretical |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | hypothetical |
| Synonyms: | abstract, academic, analytical, assumed, conjectural, contingent, general, ideal, imaginative, impractical, intellectual, logical, metaphysical, on paper*, pedantic, philosophical, pure, quixotic, speculative, tentative, transcendent, transcendental, unearthly, unsubstantiated, vague, as a premise, codified, formalistic, formularized, idealized, ideational, ideological, in the abstract, in theory, instanced, notional, postulated, presumed, problematical, suppositional, unproved |
| Notes: | empirical describes results determined by experiment and observed behavior or facts; theoretical describes results that are based on guesswork or hypothesis - and pragmatic is contrasted with theoretical on the grounds that the former proceeds from what is demonstrably practical, the latter from conjecture |
| Antonyms: | certain, definite, factual, real, proven |
* = informal/non-formal usage
| Main Entry: | uncertain |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | doubtful, changeable |
| Synonyms: | ambiguous, ambivalent, chancy, conjectural, dubious, erratic, fitful, hazy, hesitant, iffy*, incalculable, inconstant, indefinite, indeterminate, indistinct, insecure, irregular, irresolute, precarious, questionable, risky, speculative, unclear, undecided, undetermined, unforeseeable, unpredictable, unreliable, unresolved, unsettled, unsure, up in the air, vacillating, vague, variable, wavering, hanging by a thread, on thin ice, touch and go, unconfirmed, unfixed, up for grabs |
| Antonyms: | certain, clear, definite, determined, secure, sure, unchanging, foreseeable |
* = informal/non-formal usage
| Main Entry: | visionary |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | idealized, romantic |
| Synonyms: | abstracted, ambitious, astral, chimerical, daydreaming, dreaming, dreamy, exalted, fanciful, fantastic, grandiose, ideal, idealist, idealistic, illusory, imaginary, impractical, introspective, lofty, musing, noble, otherworldly, pretentious, prophetic, quixotic, radical, speculative, starry-eyed*, unreal, unrealistic, unworldly, utopian, delusory, in the clouds, unworkable |
| Antonyms: | practical, real, realistic, unromantic |
* = informal/non-formal usage
| Main Entry: | empirical |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | practical |
| Synonyms: | experimental, factual, observed, pragmatic, provisional, speculative, empiric, experient, experiential, observational |
| Antonyms: | conjectural, hypothetical, impractical, theoretical, theoretic, unobserved, unproved |
| Main Entry: | impractical |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | unrealistic |
| Synonyms: | abstract, absurd, chimerical, idealistic, illogical, impossible, impracticable, improbable, inapplicable, inefficacious, infeasible, inoperable, ivory-tower, no go, nonfunctional, nonviable, otherworldly, quixotic, romantic, speculative, starry-eyed, theoretical, unattainable, unbusinesslike, unfeasible, unreal, unserviceable, unusable, unwise, unworkable, useless, visionary, wild, won't fly |
| Antonyms: | practical, sensible |
| Main Entry: | doubtful |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | questionable, unclear |
| Synonyms: | ambiguous, borderline, chancy, contingent, debatable, dicey, disreputable, dubious, equivocal, far-fetched, fat chance, fishy*, hazardous, hazy, iffy*, inconclusive, indecisive, indefinite, indeterminate, indistinct, insecure, long shot*, obscure, open, pending, precarious, problematic, shady, sneaky*, speculative, suspect, suspicious, touch-and-go, touchy, uncertain, undecided, uneasy, unsettled, unstable, unsure, clouded, doubtable, dubitable, impugnable, on thin ice, unconfirmed, up for grabs |
| Antonyms: | certain, clear, confirmed, decided, definite, exact, settled, unquestionable, resolved |
* = informal/non-formal usage
Roget's 21st Century Thesaurus, Third Edition
Copyright © 2009 by the Philip Lief Group.
Cite This Source
Roget's 21st Century Thesaurus, Third Edition
Copyright © 2009 by the Philip Lief Group.
Cite This Source
Copyright © 2009, Dictionary.com, LLC. All rights reserved.
