extrapolation
Americannoun
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an act or instance of inferring an unknown from something that is known.
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Statistics, Mathematics. the act or process of estimating the value of a variable or function outside the tabulated or observed range.
Etymology
Origin of extrapolation
First recorded in 1870–75; extrapolat(e) + -(t)ion
Explanation
An extrapolation is kind of like an educated guess or a hypothesis. When you make an extrapolation, you take facts and observations about a present or known situation and use them to make a prediction about what might eventually happen. Extrapolation comes from the word extra, meaning “outside,” and a shortened form of the word interpolation. Interpolation might sound like a made-up word, but it’s not. An interpolation is an insertion between two points. So an extrapolation is an insertion outside any existing points. If you know something about Monday and Tuesday, you might be able to make an extrapolation about Wednesday.
Vocabulary lists containing extrapolation
Artemis Fowl
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Cosmos
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"The Coming Merging of Mind and Machine," Vocabulary from the argument
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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.
If we take into account the very strong tendency towards female mobility, a paradox appears, one that places the extrapolation proposed by the Science article under deep tension.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 7, 2026
AI might take some of the data collection and extrapolation work of economics away from economists.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 2, 2026
But it’s an extrapolation of those ethics at the New York Times.
From Slate ● Nov. 17, 2025
In 2016, he co-authored an analysis published in The BMJ asserting that medical error is the third leading cause of death in the United States—a claim critics have dismissed as a wild extrapolation.
From Science Magazine ● Nov. 25, 2024
With Richardson’s curve and the simplest extrapolation for the future growth of the human population, the two curves do not intersect until the thirtieth century or so, and Doomsday is deferred.
From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan
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.
