figure out
Britishverb
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to calculate or reckon
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to understand
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Discover or determine, as in Let's figure out a way to help . [Early 1900s]
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Solve or decipher, as in Can you figure out this puzzle? [Early 1800s]
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.
Now, you can use data and insights to figure out what we need to serve up to customers throughout the entire life cycle of the journey.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 30, 2026
My friend is trying to figure out how to ensure that her children get her share of the estate should she die first.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 30, 2026
In the two other cases, Claude either never realized that it had hacked a real-world company or it did figure out what was going on and then stopped hacking immediately.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 30, 2026
I said something like: “Please don’t go home. Your child needs oxygen. She has pneumonia. We will figure out a way to pay for this, because we acknowledge what we do is expensive.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 28, 2026
Knowing my old grandpa as I did, I had the feeling that he was trying to tell me something but I couldn’t figure out what it was.
From "Summer of the Monkeys" by Wilson Rawls
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.
