estimate
Americanverb (used with object)
-
estimates,
present (3rd person singular)
-
estimated,
past participle, past
-
estimating
present participle
verb (used without object)
-
estimates,
present (3rd person singular)
-
estimated,
past participle, past
-
estimating
present participle
noun
-
estimates
plural
-
an approximate judgment or calculation, as of the value, amount, time, size, or weight of something.
- Synonyms:
- appraisal, calculation, valuation
-
a judgment or opinion, as of the qualities of a person or thing.
-
a statement of the approximate charge for work to be done, submitted by a person or business firm ready to undertake the work.
verb
-
to form an approximate idea of (distance, size, cost, etc); calculate roughly; gauge
-
(tr; may take a clause as object) to form an opinion about; judge
to estimate one's chances
-
to submit (an approximate price) for (a job) to a prospective client
-
(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
-
an approximate calculation
-
a statement indicating the likely charge for or cost of certain work
-
a judgment; appraisal; opinion
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
-
estimatornoun
-
preestimatenoun
-
reestimatenoun
-
self-estimatenoun
-
preestimateverb (used with object)
-
reestimateverb (used with object)
-
estimativeadjective
-
unestimatedadjective
-
well-estimatedadjective
-
estimatinglyadverb
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
estimatesimple
-
estimatessimple
-
have estimatedperfect
-
has estimatedperfect
-
am estimatingprogressive
-
are estimatingprogressive
-
is estimatingprogressive
-
have been estimatingperfect progressive
-
has been estimatingperfect progressive
Past
-
estimatedsimple
-
had estimatedperfect
-
was estimatingprogressive
-
were estimatingprogressive
-
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
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
Arithmetic
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
Tax Day Words
Want to remember this word for good? Start your learning journey today with our library of interactive, themed word lists built by the experts at Vocabulary.com – we'll help you make the most of your study time!
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:
Home-builders estimate that the cost of delivering a new property, external has risen by an estimated average of £76,000 per home, equivalent to more than 20% of the average new home value of £365,000.
From BBC ● Sep. 19, 2026
Lofty yields are the draw: Funds in this space commonly estimate an annualized rate in the 10% to 15% range, according to Zachary Evens, a manager research analyst at Morningstar.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 18, 2026
Volkswagen now targets a 2026 operating return on sales of up to 1%, down from its prior estimate of 4% to 5.5%.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 2026
Scientists estimate that impacts of this size create about 140 new craters across the Moon each year.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 18, 2026
The current best estimate for Earth’s weight is 5.9725 billion trillion metric tons, a difference of only about 1 percent from Cavendish’s finding.
From "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson
Altadena Green estimates that west Altadena lost roughly 70% of its tree canopy in the Eaton fire, and the losses haven’t stopped, with developers and homeowners continuing to clear what’s left.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 19, 2026
Earlier this week, the Pentagon told Congress that the cost of the war has climbed to $42 billion, a bit over the most recent estimates of $38 billion from the Congressional Budget Office.
From Salon ● Sep. 19, 2026
The economist expects the semiconductor boom to add 3.2 percentage points to Citi’s growth estimates for the country, with real GDP growth now projected at 3.7% in 2026, 3.1% in 2027 and 3.0% in 2028.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 2026
McPeake estimates that $47 billion of capital spending on Nvidia’s upcoming Rubin GPUs could lead to $40 billion in annualized revenue for neoclouds through shorter-term contracts, or $20 billion from longer-term agreements.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 18, 2026
Indeed, it is the same figure provided by Las Casas, patron saint of High Counters, foremost among the old Spanish sources whose estimates Henige spends many pages discounting.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
Home-builders estimate that the cost of delivering a new property, external has risen by an estimated average of £76,000 per home, equivalent to more than 20% of the average new home value of £365,000.
From BBC ● Sep. 19, 2026
She notes Anthropic is targeting a potential valuation of up to $2 trillion, equivalent to around 20X its estimated $100 billion 2026 annualized revenue run rate, versus Z.AI’s roughly 18X.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 2026
A May 2026 PwC study estimated the industry directly employed more than 1 million Americans in 2024 and supported 5.5 million jobs across the broader economy, up 17% in a single year.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 18, 2026
In 12 months, she estimated, he’d lost two-thirds of his body weight.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 18, 2026
Dr. Grossman estimated that the burns covered 22 percent of Sasha’s body.
From "The 57 Bus" by Dashka Slater
Even there, the population is small, with the most recent survey estimating just 140 mature individuals.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 14, 2026
Even meteorologists estimating cooling demand gains over the holiday weekend acknowledge cooler weather in the 11-15 day window, he adds.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 8, 2026
Asking not to be named in fear for the safety of relatives, they said mourning rituals were being held, estimating that at least 24 people had died.
From Barron's ● Sep. 1, 2026
Pokharel believes the toll there could be far higher than official figures suggest, estimating that "2,000 to 2,500 people" may have been caught in the flood.
From BBC ● Sep. 1, 2026
It was the equivalent of pulling a frantic all-nighter to get a paper done in college, only Barack was estimating it would take him roughly a couple of months to get the book finished.
From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama
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.
