estimate

[es-tuh-meyt, es-tuh-mit, -meyt]

verb (used with object)

estimated, estimating 

1. to form an approximate judgment or opinion regarding the worth, amount, size, weight, etc., of; calculate approximately.

   to estimate the cost of a college education.

   Synonyms: appraise, evaluate, value, assess, gauge, reckon, count, compute

2. to form an opinion of; judge.

verb (used without object)

estimated, estimating 

1. to make an estimate.

noun

1. an approximate judgment or calculation, as of the value, amount, time, size, or weight of something.

   Synonyms: appraisal, calculation, valuation

2. a judgment or opinion, as of the qualities of a person or thing.

3. a statement of the approximate charge for work to be done, submitted by a person or business firm ready to undertake the work.

estimate

verb

1. to form an approximate idea of (distance, size, cost, etc); calculate roughly; gauge

2. (tr; may take a clause as object) to form an opinion about; judge

   to estimate one's chances

3. to submit (an approximate price) for (a job) to a prospective client

4. (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

1. an approximate calculation

2. a statement indicating the likely charge for or cost of certain work

3. a judgment; appraisal; opinion

Other Word Forms

• estimative adjective
• estimatingly adverb
• estimator noun
• preestimate noun
• reestimate noun
• self-estimate noun
• unestimated adjective
• well-estimated adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of estimate¹

First recorded in 1525–35; from Latin aestimātus “valued,” past participle of aestimāre “to value, fix the value of”

Word History and Origins

Origin of estimate¹

C16: from Latin aestimāre to assess the worth of, of obscure origin

Example Sentences

Tesla stock trades for about 180 times estimated next year’s earnings, up from about 70 times a year ago.

Read more on Barron's

Grimes estimates they could have converted about $140,000 in pretax income to a Roth without being pushed into a higher tax bracket.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Scrapping VAT on domestic energy bills would save the average household £86 per year and cost an estimated £2.5bn per year to implement, according to the charity Nesta.

Read more on BBC

The Department of Health and Human Services has estimated a cycle of IVF can cost between $15,000 and $20,000 for a single cycle — more if donor eggs are involved.

Read more on Salon

More than 100,000 saltwater and less aggressive freshwater crocodiles are estimated to be living across northern Australia.

Read more on Barron's

Related Words

• appraisal 
• assessment 
• conclusion 
• estimation 
• evaluation 
• guess 
• measure 
• measurement 
• opinion 
• projection 
• rating 
• survey 
• valuation