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What is the difference between 'speculative', 'hypothetical' and 'conjectural'?

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+1 for the interesting question. You could have thrown in conjectural for good measure. – Alain Pannetier Φ May 9 '11 at 6:05

2 Answers

up vote 4 down vote accepted

A hypothesis in a scientific sense is an idea based on existing evidence, that can be tested. Speculation isn't necessarily based on anything, and may not be provable.

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+1. In everyday talk, you will often find hypothesis qualified by reasonable (a reasonable hypothesis) whereas the adjective often attached to speculation is actually wild ("a wild speculation"). – Alain Pannetier Φ May 9 '11 at 6:21
@ Alain: I could understand the phrase 'a reasonable hypothesis', but what is going to be the exact meaning of 'wild speculation'? I just looked up a dictionary, but couldn't determine the meaning of 'wild', which has several meanings. – czh May 9 '11 at 7:02
@ Alain: I think I got the meaning of 'wild' in the context of 'wild speculation'. 'wild' means 'rough', right? – czh May 9 '11 at 7:17
Sam's answer is the most accurate, I pretend to say that has a 100% accurate approach – Lefteris Gkinis May 9 '11 at 7:50
@czh, in this context 'wild' means remotely plausible. You can understand this sense by comparing it to reasonable: a wild person/behaviour is the opposite of a reasonable one. The same applies to hypothesis a wild speculation is unfounded. For instance wildly speculative gossips about celebrities: with little or no supporting evidence. – Alain Pannetier Φ May 9 '11 at 8:18
up vote 1 down vote

Speculative is based on arbitrary assumptions, while hypothetical is based on certain priori reasoning or could also be imaginative.

Update: 1

Speculative is often used in context of betting and waging:

His investments in crude oil are speculative - they are based on assumptions that middle east crisis may further intensify.

Generating something hypothetical is a good tool in scientific research, proposals and education:

Professor, while teaching to his students, said, "Imagine a hypothetical situation where you find five bills of $100 lying around..."

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Does it mean that 'speculative' is more general than 'hypothetical'? If so, would you give me an example where speculative is OK, but hypothetical may not be proper? – czh May 9 '11 at 5:31
@chz: Updated the answer, I guess that should help. – check123 May 9 '11 at 5:57
@chz: It is hard to find a situation where 'hypothetical' and 'speculative' may be used interchangeably at first place; they are often in used different contexts. – check123 May 9 '11 at 5:59

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