Speculate vs. Invest — What's the Difference?

To engage in a course of reasoning often based on inconclusive evidence; conjecture or theorize.

To commit (money or capital) in order to gain a financial return

To engage in the buying or selling of a commodity with an element of risk on the chance of profit.

To spend or devote for future advantage or benefit

To assume to be true without conclusive evidence

To devote morally or psychologically, as to a purpose; commit

To think, meditate or reflect on a subject; to consider, to deliberate or cogitate.

To endow with authority or power

(intransitive) To make an inference based on inconclusive evidence; to surmise or conjecture.

To install in office with ceremony

To make a risky trade in the hope of making a profit; to venture or gamble.

To provide with an enveloping or pervasive quality

To anticipate which branch of code will be chosen and execute it in advance.

To clothe; adorn.

To consider by turning a subject in the mind, and viewing it in its different aspects and relations; to meditate; to contemplate; to theorize; as, to speculate on questions in religion; to speculate on political events.

To cover completely; envelop.

To view subjects from certain premises given or assumed, and infer conclusions respecting them a priori.

To surround with troops or ships; besiege.

To purchase with the expectation of a contingent advance in value, and a consequent sale at a profit; - often, in a somewhat depreciative sense, of unsound or hazardous transactions; as, to speculate in coffee, in sugar, or in bank stock.

To make investments or an investment

To consider attentively; as, to speculate the nature of a thing.

To purchase with the expectation of benefit

To believe especially on uncertain or tentative grounds;

To spend money, time, or energy on something, especially for some benefit or purpose; used with in.

Talk over conjecturally, or review in an idle or casual way and with an element of doubt or without sufficient reason to reach a conclusion;

To clothe or wrap (with garments).

Reflect deeply on a subject;

To put on (clothing).

Invest at a risk;

To envelop, wrap, cover.

To commit money or capital in the hope of financial gain.

To ceremonially install someone in some office.

To formally give (someone) some power or authority.

To formally give (power or authority).

To surround, accompany, or attend.

To lay siege to.

(intransitive) To make investments.

(metallurgy) To prepare for lost wax casting by creating an investment mold (a mixture of a silica sand and plaster).

(intransitive) To cause to be involved in; to cause to form strong attachments to.

(meteorology) An unnamed tropical weather pattern "to investigate" for development into a significant (named) system.

To put garments on; to clothe; to dress; to array; - opposed to divest. Usually followed by with, sometimes by in; as, to invest one with a robe.

To put on.

To clothe, as with office or authority; to place in possession of rank, dignity, or estate; to endow; to adorn; to grace; to bedeck; as, to invest with honor or glory; to invest with an estate.

To surround, accompany, or attend.

To confer; to give.

To inclose; to surround or hem in with troops, so as to intercept reinforcements of men and provisions and prevent escape; to lay siege to; as, to invest a town.

To lay out (money or capital) in business with the view of obtaining an income or profit; as, to invest money in bank stock.

To expend (time, money, or other resources) with a view to obtaining some benefit of value in excess of that expended, or to achieve a useful pupose; as, to invest a lot of time in teaching one's children.

To make an investment; as, to invest in stocks; - usually followed by in.

Make an investment;

Give qualities or abilities to

Furnish with power or authority; of kings or emperors

Provide with power and authority;

Place ceremoniously or formally in an office or position;