precision
Americannoun
-
precisions
plural
-
the state or quality of being precise.
-
accuracy; exactness.
to arrive at an estimate with precision.
- Synonyms:
- rigor
-
mechanical or scientific exactness.
a lens ground with precision.
-
punctiliousness; strictness.
precision in one's business dealings.
-
Mathematics. the degree to which the correctness of a quantity is expressed.
-
Chemistry, Physics. the extent to which a given set of measurements of the same sample agree with their mean.
adjective
noun
-
the quality of being precise; accuracy
-
(modifier) characterized by or having a high degree of exactness
precision grinding
a precision instrument
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of precision
First recorded in 1630–40; from Latin praecīsiōn-, stem of praecīsiō “cutoff”; equivalent to precise + -ion
Explanation
Use the noun precision to describe something that's exact, such as the work of a carpenter who's made 100 identical pieces of railing for a grand staircase. Precision is similar to perfection in that both words suggest that something could not possibly be better. However, perfection describes something that's flawless, such as a beautiful sunset. Precision, on the other hand, is more about accuracy, like computing the exact second that the perfect sunset will occur.
Vocabulary lists containing precision
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List 5
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The Scientific Method
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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:
Pitching coach Red Adams convinced him that precision location and ball movement were more effective than raw speed and John went 11-5 the following season.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 16, 2026
The techniques vary: either seeding rockets are burned to release a plume of particles, or the saline solution is sprayed directly into the cloud for greater precision.
From Barron's ● Aug. 12, 2026
Logical reasoning often requires a level of precision that ordinary language does not provide.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 11, 2026
The K3 Scout sea drones can remotely carry out surveillance, and according to their supplier, "support a wide range of mission profiles including maritime awareness, force protection, logistics and precision strike".
From BBC ● Aug. 10, 2026
All working with a precision saying they’ve done this thousands and thousands of times.
From "The Last Cuentista" by Donna Barba Higuera
And yet an EUV alone is a nearly miraculous human achievement, capable of working at scales and precisions that are difficult to fathom.
From New York Times ● Jul. 12, 2023
“We can create these models that basically let us know the time of arrival to precisions that rival atomic clocks,” says Thankful Cromartie, an astrophysicist at Cornell University and a member of NANOGrav.
From Scientific American ● Jun. 28, 2023
It’s in these precisions that the historical and sociological force of her work registers.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 6, 2023
They will have to decide which qubits in the computer to use and how to deal with ranges of operational fidelities and low-level precisions that are foreign to most modern programmers.
From Nature ● Sep. 12, 2017
They catch the idea readily and practice their teachers' precisions and pruderies upon the family.
From Atlantic Classics, Second Series by Jane Addams
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.
