What's the difference between speculation and theory?

Speculation


Definition:

  • (n.) The act of speculating.
  • (n.) Examination by the eye; view.
  • (n.) Mental view of anything in its various aspects and relations; contemplation; intellectual examination.
  • (n.) The act or process of reasoning a priori from premises given or assumed.
  • (n.) The act or practice of buying land, goods, shares, etc., in expectation of selling at a higher price, or of selling with the expectation of repurchasing at a lower price; a trading on anticipated fluctuations in price, as distinguished from trading in which the profit expected is the difference between the retail and wholesale prices, or the difference of price in different markets.
  • (n.) Any business venture in involving unusual risks, with a chance for large profits.
  • (n.) A conclusion to which the mind comes by speculating; mere theory; view; notion; conjecture.
  • (n.) Power of sight.
  • (n.) A game at cards in which the players buy from one another trumps or whole hands, upon a chance of getting the highest trump dealt, which entitles the holder to the pool of stakes.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) It did the job of triggering growth, but it also fueled real-estate speculation, similar to what was going on in the mid-2000s here.” Slowing economic growth may be another concern.
  • (2) It has been speculated that these cigarette smoke-induced alterations contribute to the depressed pulmonary defense mechanisms commonly demonstrated in smokers.
  • (3) We speculate that this cleavage event is catalyzed by either a cryptic potyviral proteinase that requires a host factor or subcellular environment for activation, or possibly a host proteinase.
  • (4) 9.23pm GMT Expect the reporters to get even more speculative and desperate from hereon in.
  • (5) So it was speculated that the enhancement of pulmonary metastasis needs remaining of irradiated tumor in bodies of mice for a certain period.
  • (6) We speculate that intestinal injury may also induce or perpetuate arthritis by systemic distribution of inflammatory mediators produced by intestinal immune effector cells.
  • (7) We speculate that the preferential rupture of the H2B-H4 contact is of physiological significance.
  • (8) Such an explanation not only remains vague and speculative but deserves criticism also for being incomplete.
  • (9) One may speculate whether clinical conditions exist--apart from hereditary retinal dystrophies--in which the retina becomes more sensitive to light from strong artificial or natural sources, which are otherwise innoxious.
  • (10) The literature concerning the possible effects of tetracyclines on hemostasis with or without antecedent anticoagulation therapy is reviewed and the speculated mechanisms for such an interaction are discussed.
  • (11) Cable, once a leading critic of City speculation, insists the shares will go to responsible investors.
  • (12) "Getting a 95% loan to value mortgage lets you speculate on the expected house price increases a lot more than a 75% mortgage," he said.
  • (13) Thus one may speculate that endothelin plays a role in the coronary spasm which has been shown in patients with angina pectoris.
  • (14) Gerson Zweifach, general counsel for both News Corp and 21st Century Fox , Murdoch’s film and TV business, said: “We are grateful that this matter has been concluded and acknowledge the fairness and professionalism of the Department of Justice throughout this investigation.” It is understood there has been no background settlement with the Department of Justice in order to avoid a full-blown investigation, contrary to speculation in New York over a year ago that the company was looking at a possible payment of over $850m.
  • (15) Dealers speculated that Facebook's army of bankers had stepped in to stop the shares falling below $38, a move that would have landed the social network with a public relations disaster on its first day as a public company.
  • (16) If we were to have a plebiscite before the end of the year, and you were to reverse-engineer that, it would make interesting speculation about the timing of an election.” Abetz said in January he would need to see whether a plebiscite was “above board or whether the question is stacked” before deciding to heed any result in favour of marriage equality.
  • (17) Undoubtedly because new theories remain speculative when viewed from our own standpoint.
  • (18) Lack of transparency about the nature of the relationship between police and media also led to speculation and perceptions, whatever the facts, that caused "serious harm".
  • (19) The similarity of the low-K breathing pattern to that observed with reserpine administration together with the known relationships of K and catecholamine metabolism lead to the speculation that K depletion alters breathing via an effect on central catecholamine metabolism.
  • (20) Last week, Park offered a public apology after acknowledging Choi had edited some of her speeches and provided help with public relations, but South Korea’s media have speculated Choi played a much larger, secret role in government affairs.

Theory


Definition:

  • (n.) A doctrine, or scheme of things, which terminates in speculation or contemplation, without a view to practice; hypothesis; speculation.
  • (n.) An exposition of the general or abstract principles of any science; as, the theory of music.
  • (n.) The science, as distinguished from the art; as, the theory and practice of medicine.
  • (n.) The philosophical explanation of phenomena, either physical or moral; as, Lavoisier's theory of combustion; Adam Smith's theory of moral sentiments.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) This theory was confirmed by product analysis and by measuring the affinity of the substrate for the enzyme by its inhibition of p-nitrophenyl glucoside hydrolysis.
  • (2) The position of the cyst supports the theory that branchial cysts are congenital in origin.
  • (3) It helped pay the bills and caused me to ponder on the disconnection between theory and reality.
  • (4) Implications of the theory for hypothesis testing, theory construction, and scales of measurement are considered.
  • (5) This observation, reinforced by simultaneous determinations of cortisol levels in the internal spermatic and antecubital veins, practically excluded the validity of the theory of adrenal hormonal suppression of testicular tissues.
  • (6) In 1935, Einstein challenged the prevailing interpretation of quantum theory.
  • (7) These results are interpreted in terms of the accessory binding site theory of Ariëns, and suggest the existence of different accessory binding sites on the Ascaris GABA receptor.
  • (8) September 11 conspiracies Facebook Twitter Pinterest September 11 conspiracy theories.
  • (9) This theory is supported by a previous experimental report.
  • (10) On the assumption of a distribution in properties of the suspension according to the theory of Bruggeman, the capacitance is calculated to have a value of about one half this.5.
  • (11) These findings do not support the theory that 5-HT1C receptor activation causes migraine.
  • (12) Only one part of the theory of Alajouanine and colleagues has been confirmed by our experiments for our results have shown that there is a very close correlation between semantic paraphasias and disorders of semantic differentiation whilst no correlation can be found between phonemic paraphasias and disturbances in auditory phonemic discrimination.
  • (13) A new theory for the peculiar site selection of cholesteatomas of the external auditory canal is postulated.
  • (14) However, our theory differs in several important respects from the latter efforts.
  • (15) This paper provides an overview of the theory, indicating its contributions--such as a basis for individual psychotherapy of severe disorders and a more effective understanding of countertransference--and its shortcomings--such as lack of an explanation for the effects of physical and cognitive factors on object relatedness.
  • (16) The various theories of carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) are reviewed.
  • (17) Comparison with values predicted from theory shows that the distribution of protein among the various cross-linked species, obtained after different extents of exposure to cross-linker, is consistent with a two-layered arrangement of subunits involving one type of interaction between subunits from different layers and another between subunits within the same layer.
  • (18) For each theory, a constraint on preformance is proposed based on interference between the "analytic" and "synthetic" pitch perception modes.
  • (19) Republican presidential hopeful Scott Walker has refused to say whether he believes in the theory of evolution, arguing that it is “a question a politician shouldn’t be involved in one way or the other”.
  • (20) These findings support the theory that plasma-membrane-cytoskeleton interactions have a role in the expression of specific immunity; the findings also identify new areas that should be considered in trying to understand the primary immunodeficiency diseases.