recalibrate
Americanverb (used with or without object)
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to correct or adjust the gradations or settings on (a measuring instrument, sensor, or other piece of precision equipment).
If your battery fuel gauge is still inaccurate after following these steps, you may need to manually recalibrate the gauge.
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to reexamine (one’s thinking, a plan, a system of values, etc.) and correct it in accord with a new understanding or purpose.
This is a government that's out of touch and refusing to recalibrate after getting a clear message from voters.
Etymology
Origin of recalibrate
Explanation
To recalibrate is to adjust the settings on a device that precisely measures, senses, or moves. You might have to recalibrate your thermostat in order for it to accurately tell you how hot or cold it is in your apartment. When a precision instrument is first set up, it's finely adjusted to be as accurate as possible, a process called calibration. Whenever it needs fine-tuning, someone must recalibrate it, bringing it back to accuracy. This is true for scientific instruments, bathroom scales, barometers, and more. If your baking scale seems off, you may want to recalibrate it. This word is from calibrate, originally "determine the caliber of," a reference to measuring the inside of a gun barrel."
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:
The other $1 billion, it said, would likely come from efforts to recalibrate its supply chain and other moves to streamline the business.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 1, 2026
“Normally there’d be a current charting trap or rap song, but there’s something about that song that I think makes you recalibrate how you’re looking at the scene in general.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 10, 2026
People have to recalibrate their lifestyles, regardless of income level.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 21, 2026
A surefire sign of a sports star who wants to achieve true greatness is the ability to recalibrate, realign and reach their next goal.
From BBC ● Apr. 13, 2026
‘If we make the damage too obvious, we’ll never get to the other ones in time. Can you recalibrate the aim - like, towards the other onagers’ firing lines?’
From "Blood of Olympus" by Rick Riordan
To investigate further, researchers recalibrated radiocarbon dates connected to the human remains.
From Science Daily ● May 13, 2026
Some have recalibrated pricing to offset the eyebrow-raising sums they have shelled out to secure the rights to sports programming such as the National Football League and Major League Baseball.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 12, 2026
So, on the cusp of turning 30, he retreated to Italy, recalibrated his life and took up marathon running.
From BBC ● Mar. 4, 2026
Those models are by no means perfect—and they’re constantly getting refined and recalibrated.
From Barron's ● Feb. 19, 2026
I look up to answer my final question, and that’s when I notice something at the end of the long rec room, now that my vision has recalibrated itself.
From "Saints and Misfits" by S.K. Ali
As a result, Wall Street is recalibrating expectations for the rest of the hyperscalers.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 28, 2026
After recalibrating the data, the team found that emissions from land had been significantly overestimated in earlier models, but even after correction, land remained the dominant source.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 24, 2026
This time, though, “The Pitt” also counsels recalibrating our concept of what’s important, whether that means reevaluating our focus on our jobs over our families or other choices about how we’re living.
From Salon ● Jan. 8, 2026
“People start recalibrating how they’re going to run their life,” Sweet says.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 2, 2025
This was Beethoven's great significance, not through form or musical language, but in recalibrating what music was for.
From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall
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.
