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View synonyms for approximation

approximation

[ uh-prok-suh-mey-shuhn ]

noun

  1. a guess or estimate:

    Ninety-three million miles is an approximation of the distance of the earth from the sun.

  2. nearness in space, position, degree, or relation; proximity; closeness.
  3. Mathematics, Physics. a result that is not necessarily exact, but is within the limits of accuracy required for a given purpose.


approximation

/ əˌprɒksɪˈmeɪʃən /

noun

  1. the process or result of making a rough calculation, estimate, or guess

    he based his conclusion on his own approximation of the fuel consumption

  2. an imprecise or unreliable record or version

    an approximation of what really happened

  3. maths an inexact number, relationship, or theory that is sufficiently accurate for a specific purpose
  4. maths
    1. an estimate of the value of some quantity to a desired degree of accuracy
    2. an expression in simpler terms than a given expression which approximates to it
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


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Other Words From

  • ap·proxi·mative adjective
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Word History and Origins

Origin of approximation1

1400–50; late Middle English approximacioun (< Middle French ) < Medieval Latin approximātiōn-, stem of approximātiō. See approximate, -ion
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Example Sentences

The format pits teams of four against each other in a loose approximation of football.

The new approaches disguise that nonlinearity as a more digestible set of linear approximations, though their exact methods vary considerably.

This will give you a close approximation of how much noise you can get away with.

The closest approximation to this that you may have heard about was when a holographic version of the late Tupac Shakur performed at Coachella in 2012.

Pinning down exactly what coverage a team is in can be difficult, but we can get an approximation.

The hallucination is visually incoherent, either a rough approximation of text or a random assemblage of letters.

Which is where the performance of Vera Farmiga comes in, with its impressively sly approximation of neurotic spontaneity.

This is the closet Bordo comes to a phenomenological approximation of what it was like to be Anne Boleyn.

To the second point, Reinhart and Rogoff had, to a first approximation, zero actual effect on policy.

There are, to a first approximation, zero healthy adoptable babies in the US foster care system.

History can never be other than an approximation to the truth, even when it relates to the events and characters of its own age.

There is much reason to question the entire accuracy of these returns, yet there is doubtless an approximation to the truth.

Let us see what degree of approximation can practically be made to the necessary precision.

It is not only impossible to do this completely, but even to do so much of it as should constitute a tolerable approximation.

At noon an observation by the meridian altitude of the sun's lower limb gave us 35 30′, as an approximation to our latitude.

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approximatelyappt.