What is another word for speculatively?

Pronunciation: [spˈɛkjʊlətˌɪvli] (IPA)

Speculatively is a word used to describe activities that are done with a certain amount of guesswork or conjecture. Synonyms for this word include tentatively, hesitantly, cautiously, imaginatively, and hypothetically. Tentatively refers to a manner of doing something while being unsure or hesitant about the outcome. Hesitantly is a term used to describe an action that is done with reluctance due to the lack of confidence. Caution is a formal synonym for speculation, indicating that one is taking necessary precautions while making an educated guess. Imaginatively refers to creative thinking and drawing conclusions that may not necessarily be based on fact. Hypothetically implies a theoretical approach to something that may or may not be true.

Usage examples for Speculatively

"Do you think it is right, fair," continued the girl slowly, her brow wrinkled speculatively, "to break your uncle's and aunt's hearts for the sake of a girl?
"Garrison's Finish A Romance of the Race-Course"
W. B. M. Ferguson
"It will be a very fine thing for this nephew," he added speculatively.
"Garrison's Finish A Romance of the Race-Course"
W. B. M. Ferguson
Blaine leaned back easily in his chair, and after a slight pause he added speculatively, with deliberate intent, "I didn't know you had interests there!"
"The Crevice"
William John Burns and Isabel Ostrander

Famous quotes with Speculatively

  • Thus the same object may supply a practical perception to one person and a speculative one to another, or the same person may perceive it partly practically and partly speculatively.
    Samuel Alexander
  • The so-called ‘psychotically depressed’ person who tries to kill herself doesn't do so out of quote ‘hopelessness’ or any abstract conviction that life's assets and debits do not square. And surely not because death seems suddenly appealing. The person in whom invisible agony reaches a certain unendurable level will kill herself the same way a trapped person will eventually jump from the window of a burning high-rise. Make no mistake about people who leap from burning windows. Their terror of falling from a great height is still just as great as it would be for you or me standing speculatively at the same window just checking out the view; i.e. the fear of falling remains a constant. The variable here is the other terror, the fire's flames: when the flames get close enough, falling to death becomes the slightly less terrible of two terrors. It's not desiring the fall; it's terror of the flames. Yet nobody down on the sidewalk, looking up and yelling ‘Don‘t!’ and ‘Hang on!’, can understand the jump. Not really. You'd have to have personally been trapped and felt flames to really understand a terror way beyond falling.
    David Foster Wallace

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