fine-tune

American  

[fahyn-toon, -tyoon] / ˈfaɪnˈtun, -ˈtjun /

verb (used with object)

• fine-tunes,
  present (3rd person singular)
• fine-tuned,
  past participle,  past
• fine-tuning
  present participle

1. to tune (a radio or television receiver) to produce the optimum reception for the desired station or channel by adjusting a control knob or bar.

2. tune.

3. to make minor adjustments in so as to produce stability, improvement, or the precise results desired.

   to fine-tune the nation's economy.

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fine-tune British  

verb

1. (tr) to make fine adjustments to (something) in order to obtain optimum performance

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• fine-tuner
  noun

Inflected Forms

Participles

• fine-tuning
  present
• fine-tuned
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• fine-tune
  simple
• fine-tunes
  simple
• have fine-tuned
  perfect
• has fine-tuned
  perfect
• am fine-tuning
  progressive
• are fine-tuning
  progressive
• is fine-tuning
  progressive
• have been fine-tuning
  perfect progressive
• has been fine-tuning
  perfect progressive

Past

• fine-tuned
  simple
• had fine-tuned
  perfect
• was fine-tuning
  progressive
• were fine-tuning
  progressive
• had been fine-tuning
  perfect progressive

Future

• will fine-tune
  simple
• will have fine-tuned
  perfect
• will be fine-tuning
  progressive
• will have been fine-tuning
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of fine-tune

First recorded in 1920–25

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

fine-tune fine-tunes fine-tuned fine-tuning

Now you just need to fine-tune your plans so the money works exactly as you want.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 21, 2026

This arrangement created an octacoordinate ligand environment, giving the scientists a way to fine-tune the positions of the metals.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 29, 2026

A 4-2 defeat to Real Sociedad on Tuesday will irritate their perfectionist head coach, but there is plenty of time for him to fine-tune the Europa League holders before the start of the new campaign.

From BBC ● Jul. 28, 2026

But its longtime focus on using data and analytics to fine-tune and reset its pricing, and on improving its own systems, helped it rebound faster than others, analysts said.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 20, 2026

I fine-tune her hair, placing a nice wave in the strands, adding a shiny gloss like Padma's black hair, and thickening it in the crown.

From "The Belles" by Dhonielle Clayton

The agency fine-tunes its employment estimates every year.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 28, 2026

The day the typical AI paper out of Stanford fine-tunes an American open model—simply because it is the best model available—is the day we are winning.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026

"It's like a nutrient that fine-tunes how your body reads your genes," she said.

From Science Daily ● Apr. 7, 2026

“I just feel like this woman has a little bit of mystery and strength,” Althouse says, as Soria fine-tunes the woman’s leg.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 3, 2025

"Tell me what you buy and I'll tell you who you are"-mug shots of all of us are taken continuously, by extremely inventive digital devices, while the market fine-tunes us.

From The Civilization of Illiteracy by Mihai Nadin

With all the data available after the race, we fine-tuned a little bit the set-up around that new spec.

From BBC ● Aug. 25, 2026

Instead, AI was used to co-design the character: Erwin originally imagined a bald Moses, but based on Kingsley’s feedback, they fine-tuned the look with weathered hair and mustache.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 13, 2026

And through his new scientific network, he met a professor at the University of Queensland able to administer the fine-tuned treatment.

From Barron's ● Mar. 30, 2026

The brokerage slightly raises the stock’s target price to THB42.00 from THB41.60 to reflect fine-tuned 2025-2027 core profit assumptions, while maintaining the buy rating.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 12, 2026

Ray’s instincts are fine-tuned, because as soon as Byrd gives the okay, he tears toward the woods.

From "A Bird Will Soar" by Alison Green Myers

CrowdStrike developed SafeMind by fine-tuning Nvidia’s open Nemotron models with its own threat intel and other cyber data.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 2, 2026

That raw information allows anyone to run a model on specialized hardware and to build on top of the model, altering its weights with additional data in a process called fine-tuning.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 2, 2026

Already, McDaniel has done some tinkering and fine-tuning, tweaking Herbert’s footwork out of the shotgun formation to allow him to get the ball out of his hands a fraction of a second earlier.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 23, 2026

Earlier this week, AI lab Thinking Machines announced its latest Inkling model, which used outputs generated by Kimi K2.5 during the fine-tuning phase.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 17, 2026

“A little fine-tuning to make her sing,” he says over the engine.

From "Thirteen Reasons Why" by Jay Asher

Related Words

• adjust
• calibrate
• tweak