estimate
Americanverb (used with object)
verb (used without object)
noun
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an approximate judgment or calculation, as of the value, amount, time, size, or weight of something.
- Synonyms:
- appraisal, calculation, valuation
-
a judgment or opinion, as of the qualities of a person or thing.
-
a statement of the approximate charge for work to be done, submitted by a person or business firm ready to undertake the work.
verb
-
to form an approximate idea of (distance, size, cost, etc); calculate roughly; gauge
-
(tr; may take a clause as object) to form an opinion about; judge
to estimate one's chances
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to submit (an approximate price) for (a job) to a prospective client
-
(tr) statistics to assign a value (a point estimate ) or range of values (an interval estimate ) to a parameter of a population on the basis of sampling statistics See estimator
noun
-
an approximate calculation
-
a statement indicating the likely charge for or cost of certain work
-
a judgment; appraisal; opinion
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
-
estimatornoun
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preestimatenoun
-
reestimatenoun
-
self-estimatenoun
-
preestimateverb (used with object)
-
reestimateverb (used with object)
-
estimativeadjective
-
unestimatedadjective
-
well-estimatedadjective
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estimatinglyadverb
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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estimatesimple
-
estimatessimple
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have estimatedperfect
-
has estimatedperfect
-
am estimatingprogressive
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are estimatingprogressive
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is estimatingprogressive
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have been estimatingperfect progressive
-
has been estimatingperfect progressive
Past
-
estimatedsimple
-
had estimatedperfect
-
was estimatingprogressive
-
were estimatingprogressive
-
had been estimatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of estimate
First recorded in 1525–35; from Latin aestimātus “valued,” past participle of aestimāre “to value, fix the value of”
Explanation
A rough calculation or appraisal is an estimate. When you hit another baseball through the kitchen window, your parents will get an estimate of the repair costs. And you should estimate being grounded for approximately 3 weeks. An estimate is kind of like a very educated guess. Making an estimate takes good evaluation skills, and usually estimates are pretty close to the actual outcome. If the garage bill is way higher than the estimate they gave you, for example, you have a right to be angry. But if you forgot to factor in rush hour traffic when you estimated the drive from Boston to New York, that's your own fault.
Vocabulary lists containing estimate
Jim Burke's Academic Vocabulary List
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Arithmetic
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Tax Day Words
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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:
Ohtani, who led off Tuesday’s 7-6 loss to the Seattle Mariners with a home run, clarified the origins of his knee problem and shared an estimate of where it’s at strength-wise.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 29, 2026
When its estimate stood at 12.1%, the eurozone economy was recorded as having contracted by 0.2%.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 29, 2026
A stock’s forward price/earnings ratio is its price divided by the rolling consensus 12-month earnings-per-share estimate among analysts working for brokerage and research firms.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 27, 2026
AI-powered calorie tracking apps can estimate a meal's nutritional content from a single photograph.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 26, 2026
I try to estimate how many he’s had.
From "The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood
Jefferies analysts wrote in a note to clients that there was unlikely to be material upside to 2027 consensus estimates.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 29, 2026
PayPal’s reported adjusted earnings of $1.38 per share surpassed analysts’ estimates of $1.28 per share.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 29, 2026
That beat analysts’ expectations for a 0.5% slip in its top line to 219.7 million euros for the period, according to a consensus of estimates provided by the company.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 29, 2026
The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, a federal watchdog agency, estimates the subsidy program, which was supposed to stabilize Part D, reduced the average Part D plan premium by about 40% in 2025.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 28, 2026
According to the estimates of this chapter, one of them is the sun of a civilization more advanced than ours.
From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan
For the first quarter, the Central Statistics Office first estimated the economy contracted by 2%, then by 12.1%, before more recently settling on the 7% estimate.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 29, 2026
They support an estimated 75% of global crop pollination, and nearly 90% of all flowering plants.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 29, 2026
My husband will begin Social Security at the same time, based on my employment record, with an estimated monthly benefit of $2,000.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 29, 2026
State officials estimated the costs at $4,100 per acre of paved or impermeable surface for those that decide to help fund local stormwater projects, and said the costs for other options could be considerably higher.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 29, 2026
Shackleton had estimated a rate of travel that would put him on the continent by the end of December, but by Christmas they still hadn’t passed the Antarctic Circle.
From "Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World" by Jennifer Armstrong
For the third quarter, the company guided for subscription revenue of $3.98 billion to $3.98 billion, below the $4.01 billion that Wall Street is estimating.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 22, 2026
In March, Foxconn announced $137 million in investments across two Mexican subsidiaries after estimating its production could double this year.
From Barron's ● Jul. 21, 2026
Wagh claimed a turnover of £206,000, despite estimating on her bank account application that the company's turnover for the next year would be just £82,000.
From BBC ● Jul. 17, 2026
It works much like estimating how far away a car is at night if you know how bright its headlights are.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 5, 2026
It was from 1658 onwards, and thanks to Christiaan Huygens, that ordinary people began to have access to accurate timepieces, instead of estimating the time of day by the position of the Sun.
From "The Scientists" by John Gribbin
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.
