accurately
Americanadverb
-
in a way that is free from error or defect and consistent with a standard, rule, or model.
She worked on aircraft before they left on missions; the work needed to be done fast and accurately to ensure safety on all flights.
-
correctly; precisely.
He’s a good lacrosse player; he passes well and can shoot accurately.
Humans are generally afraid of death—or, more accurately, don't want to die.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of accurately
Explanation
Anything done accurately is done correctly or with very few mistakes. Many things should be performed accurately, especially brain surgery. When you're accurate, you're precise: you get things right. To do something accurately is to do it in a precise, correct, careful manner. A baseball player with a good batting average hits the ball accurately. An accountant who never makes mistakes juggles the numbers accurately. If you got 100 on a test, you performed accurately. The opposite of this word is inaccurately, which means you did something wrong, incorrectly, or with a lot of mistakes.
Vocabulary lists containing accurately
Chapter 2: The Age of Exploration, Lessons 1–3
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Florida's B.E.S.T. Common Suffixes: -ly
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Chapter 22: The Progressive Era
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Examining the pictures, volunteers said the only way to accurately identify people was through a DNA match -- which would require a family member to provide a sample.
From Barron's ● Aug. 30, 2026
“I think the Dechert report depicted the facts, as they found them, as accurately as they could,” he said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 29, 2026
The apparently illusory swings show the difficulty of accurately counting homeless people in the expanse of north Los Angeles County.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 28, 2026
"Recent fossil discoveries and advances in evolutionary and genetic analysis make this an ideal time to reconsider whether our traditional taxonomy still accurately reflects human evolution," Dr. Towle said.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 20, 2026
DNA replication requires many more proteins than just DNA polymerase to unfold the twisted double helix and to ensure that the genetic information is copied accurately.
From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
