abacus
Americannoun
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a device for making arithmetic calculations, consisting of a frame set with rods on which balls or beads are moved.
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Architecture. a slab forming the top of the capital of a column.
noun
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a counting device that consists of a frame holding rods on which a specific number of beads are free to move. Each rod designates a given denomination, such as units, tens, hundreds, etc, in the decimal system, and each bead represents a digit or a specific number of digits
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architect the flat upper part of the capital of a column
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of abacus
1350–1400; Middle English < Latin: board, counting board, re-formed < Greek ábax
Explanation
An abacus is an ancient tool used for calculating that remains popular in some places even today. Some sort of counter (beads, beans, stones) is moved in a groove or on a wire to represent the different numbers in the equation. Abacus is a Latin word from a Greek word abax, which meant "counting table." The original abaci were created in sand. The plural abacuses can also be used. In architecture, an abacus can also refer to a flat slab that sits on top of the broad part of a pillar or column (called the capital) to help support a beam (called an architrave) that rests across several pillars.
Vocabulary lists containing abacus
The Westing Game
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"Love's Vocabulary," Vocabulary from the essay
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The Night Diary
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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.
See Examples For:
Calculators, cars and probably candles and the abacus were considered a menace to society.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 7, 2025
Recently, a lovely and well-meaning friend texted me one of those trending articles that make you want to trade your smartphone for an abacus and never speak of the internet again.
From New York Times ● Mar. 9, 2024
For example, you can add numbers perfectly using an abacus, in which wooden beads are pushed back and forth to represent arithmetic operations.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 30, 2023
You can put away the abacus for this year though.
From BBC ● Dec. 9, 2022
Between my head and the abacus, I managed.
From "Dragonwings" by Laurence Yep
All three brands also use Western-style abaci, but with seven, six, and five beads, respectively, making them little more than depictions of toys.
From The Verge ● May 26, 2019
Kidwell wasn’t aware of any abaci in the museum’s collection that used an arrangement similar to Apple’s, and even the ones that came close wouldn’t have been arranged horizontally like Apple’s icon is.
From The Verge ● May 26, 2019
Other abaci emoji also have issues, but Apple’s is the worst offender And in the name of fairness, some abaci from different phone manufacturers are also off, historically speaking, but Apple’s is the worst offender.
From The Verge ● May 26, 2019
Sitting at their abaci, with hot green tea and cold rice balls for refreshment, the election clerks diligently tallied their beads and the vote.
From Time Magazine Archive
One is cluttered with newspapers and tattlers and scandal sheets, another with petit-hourglasses and abaci.
From "The Belles" by Dhonielle Clayton
Much of the buzz around the subject in recent years has been about the development of powerful quantum computers which, the narrative goes, will make our fastest supercomputers seem like abacuses by comparison.
From BBC ● Mar. 2, 2025
The floating ships in the fantasy role-playing game Honkai: Star Rail are populated with traders, gourmets and literati who surf their texts on jade abacuses.
From New York Times ● Oct. 22, 2023
Sports are represented in the form of tiny windsurfers and badminton shuttlecocks, and he has acquired some oddities, like helicopters, pencil stubs, abacuses and matchbooks.
From New York Times ● Jul. 21, 2016
Behind him are displayed a 1,500-year-old sake pot, a vertical wall of abacuses and various objets d'art befitting a place walking distance from Little Tokyo.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 16, 2015
But when everybody took abacuses out of their desks, Hanako gaped.
From "A Place to Belong" by Cynthia Kadohata
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.
