estimate
Americanverb (used with object)
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estimates,
present (3rd person singular)
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estimated,
past participle, past
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estimating
present participle
verb (used without object)
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estimates,
present (3rd person singular)
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estimated,
past participle, past
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estimating
present participle
noun
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estimates
plural
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an approximate judgment or calculation, as of the value, amount, time, size, or weight of something.
- Synonyms:
- appraisal, calculation, valuation
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a judgment or opinion, as of the qualities of a person or thing.
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a statement of the approximate charge for work to be done, submitted by a person or business firm ready to undertake the work.
verb
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to form an approximate idea of (distance, size, cost, etc); calculate roughly; gauge
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(tr; may take a clause as object) to form an opinion about; judge
to estimate one's chances
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to submit (an approximate price) for (a job) to a prospective client
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(tr) statistics to assign a value (a point estimate ) or range of values (an interval estimate ) to a parameter of a population on the basis of sampling statistics See estimator
noun
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an approximate calculation
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a statement indicating the likely charge for or cost of certain work
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a judgment; appraisal; opinion
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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estimatornoun
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preestimatenoun
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reestimatenoun
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self-estimatenoun
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preestimateverb (used with object)
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reestimateverb (used with object)
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estimativeadjective
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unestimatedadjective
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well-estimatedadjective
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estimatinglyadverb
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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estimatesimple
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estimatessimple
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have estimatedperfect
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has estimatedperfect
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am estimatingprogressive
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are estimatingprogressive
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is estimatingprogressive
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have been estimatingperfect progressive
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has been estimatingperfect progressive
Past
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estimatedsimple
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had estimatedperfect
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was estimatingprogressive
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were estimatingprogressive
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had been estimatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of estimate
First recorded in 1525–35; from Latin aestimātus “valued,” past participle of aestimāre “to value, fix the value of”
Explanation
A rough calculation or appraisal is an estimate. When you hit another baseball through the kitchen window, your parents will get an estimate of the repair costs. And you should estimate being grounded for approximately 3 weeks. An estimate is kind of like a very educated guess. Making an estimate takes good evaluation skills, and usually estimates are pretty close to the actual outcome. If the garage bill is way higher than the estimate they gave you, for example, you have a right to be angry. But if you forgot to factor in rush hour traffic when you estimated the drive from Boston to New York, that's your own fault.
Vocabulary lists containing estimate
Jim Burke's Academic Vocabulary List
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Arithmetic
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Tax Day Words
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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.
See Examples For:
The researchers "tested it in soil, seawater and deionised water. It degraded in all of those conditions ... and we estimate that it would biodegrade within about nine months," she said.
From Barron's ● Aug. 23, 2026
For the first time, the team was able to reliably estimate the relative numbers of small, faint stars and much larger, brighter stars in galaxies at such great distances.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 22, 2026
—The 10-year French government bond, or OAT, yield trimmed its rise after a weaker-than-expected flash estimate purchasing managers’ index reading for August.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026
He has purchased the building as part of a group of locals, who estimate it will need £5m of investment as they continue to look for partnerships.
From BBC ● Aug. 21, 2026
Using this figure, Kirkby went back to the ancient cobs excavated from Tehuacan Valley and tried to estimate how much grain per acre they would have yielded.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
In seven of the last 11 quarters, including estimates for the second quarter, Nvidia has been the biggest contributor to S&P 500 earnings growth, according to data from Seaport Research.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 23, 2026
Imperial College's department of chemical engineering estimates that between 20 and 25 billion balloons are purchased worldwide every year.
From Barron's ● Aug. 23, 2026
He estimates it will have an annual revenue run rate of more than $1 million by October.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 22, 2026
That hidden population means these ancient galaxies may have been significantly more massive than earlier estimates indicated.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 22, 2026
I invite you, if you disagree with my estimates below, to make your own choices and see what implications your alternative suggestions have for the number of advanced civilizations in the Galaxy.
From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan
Roughly one in four people carry APOE4, and the variant is estimated to occur in 60 to 75 percent of people with Alzheimer's.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 23, 2026
It is estimated, external they consume up to 90% less energy than typical houses.
From BBC ● Aug. 21, 2026
The remainder of an estimated 10.5 million Olympic tickets will move to first-come, first-served sales beginning in 2027.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 21, 2026
This largess has cost more than the Congressional Budget Office originally estimated.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 20, 2026
He wasn't even a member of the German American Bund, a Hitler-endorsed organization comprising an estimated 25,000 dues-paying Germans living in America.
From Nazi Saboteurs by Samantha Seiple
Traditionally, astronomers estimating the mass hidden in small, faint stars have assumed that stars formed in roughly similar proportions throughout the universe.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 22, 2026
“An offshore field with 15 to 20 wells might produce 150,000 barrels a day,” Robotti said, while estimating that an onshore well might produce “a thousand barrels a day if you are lucky.”
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 13, 2026
Company officials said they remain “committed to the fastest remediation possible,” estimating that the cleanup was about 80% complete.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 5, 2026
In March, Foxconn announced $137 million in investments across two Mexican subsidiaries after estimating its production could double this year.
From Barron's ● Jul. 21, 2026
She looks at me sideways, as if estimating how far, how much farther I’ll go in what we both know, surely, is base treachery.
From "Cat's Eye" by Margaret Atwood
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.
