speculator

[spek-yuh-ley-ter]

noun

1. a person who is engaged in commercial or financial speculation.

2. a person who makes advance purchases of tickets, as to games or theatrical performances, that are likely to be in demand, for resale later at a higher price.

3. a person who is devoted to mental speculation.

speculator

/ ˈspɛkjʊˌleɪtə /

noun

1. a person who speculates

2. rugby an undirected kick of the ball

Word History and Origins

Origin of speculator¹

1545–55; < Latin speculātor explorer, equivalent to speculā ( rī ) to watch over, explore, reconnoiter ( speculate ) + -tor -tor

Example Sentences

He stayed six months, made and lost a fortune, and gave us the indelible image of the Wall Street speculator.

Read more on Wall Street Journal

Railroad magnate and speculator Jay Gould was dubbed “the Mephistopheles of Wall Street” by ministers on the pulpit.

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While everyone from retail investors to day-trading speculators is talking about the quantum trade, others are asking the inevitable follow-up question: Is this a bubble doomed to burst?

Read more on Barron's

Recounted travel writer H. Ellington Brook, “Everybody that could find an office went into the real-estate business ... a crowd of speculators settled down upon Los Angeles like flies upon a bowl of sugar.”

Read more on Los Angeles Times

In the late 1800s, white settlers and speculators found ways to secure additional lands along the Klamath River where they could extract valuable redwood, in some cases by bribing U.S.

Read more on Los Angeles Times