estimate
Americanverb (used with object)
-
estimates,
present (3rd person singular)
-
estimated,
past participle, past
-
estimating
present participle
verb (used without object)
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estimates,
present (3rd person singular)
-
estimated,
past participle, past
-
estimating
present participle
noun
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estimates
plural
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an approximate judgment or calculation, as of the value, amount, time, size, or weight of something.
- Synonyms:
- appraisal, calculation, valuation
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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
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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
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(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
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a statement indicating the likely charge for or cost of certain work
-
a judgment; appraisal; opinion
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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estimatornoun
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preestimatenoun
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reestimatenoun
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self-estimatenoun
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preestimateverb (used with object)
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reestimateverb (used with object)
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estimativeadjective
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unestimatedadjective
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well-estimatedadjective
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estimatinglyadverb
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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estimatesimple
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estimatessimple
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have estimatedperfect
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has estimatedperfect
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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
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estimatedsimple
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had estimatedperfect
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was estimatingprogressive
-
were estimatingprogressive
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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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Academic Vocabulary: Core Tier 2 Words, List 4
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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:
One estimate has them winning 258 seats, their largest majority since 2008.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 6, 2026
By comparing how bright these explosions actually are with how bright they appear from Earth, researchers can estimate their distances.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 6, 2026
The rolling weighted 12-month EPS estimate for the index has increased by 155%, as some of the heaviest-weighted companies have shown remarkable growth in sales and profits, driven by the AI infrastructure build-out.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 6, 2026
The preliminary monthly estimate tends to get heavily revised.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 5, 2026
There was no use trying to estimate how many trips it might involve, as that sort of thinking only wore me out in advance.
From "Me Talk Pretty One Day" by David Sedaris
Barclays estimates that volatility-control funds slashed their exposure to the stock market by 30 percentage points, the biggest one-day decline since February 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic jolted markets.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 6, 2026
If you are a long-term investor who believes the EPS estimates will hold, Thursday’s action may provide a golden buying opportunity.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 6, 2026
Netflix estimates the first season generated more than $23 million in economic activity.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 6, 2026
The airline group needs to deliver a fourth-quarter operating profit before exceptional items of 743 million euros to reach full-year consensus estimates, the analyst says.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 6, 2026
It is a few hundred billion; some recent estimates place it at 4 x 1011.
From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan
And he separately estimated that between 12,000 and 20,000 provisional votes -- known as affidavit ballots -- remain uncounted, according to local NBC affiliate WDAM-7.
From Barron's ● Nov. 6, 2026
This guidance applies particularly to people at moderate cardiovascular risk or those whose estimated risk falls near the threshold at which preventive medication would normally be recommended.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 6, 2026
Today, it’s estimated that fewer than 30 remain in the city and roughly 300 in the U.S.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 5, 2026
A 2025 report, external by the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago estimated that air pollution could reduce life expectancy in Delhi by up to 8.2 years.
From BBC ● Nov. 5, 2026
Gies & Co. still had some unaccounted-for thousand-guilder bills, which they used to pay their estimated taxes for the coming years, so everything seems to be aboveboard.
From "The Diary of a Young Girl" by Anne Frank
The business opportunity surrounding humanoids is expected to be immense, with some experts estimating a multitrillion-dollar market by 2050.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 5, 2026
And Islam has long been considered one of the fastest-growing religions in the country, with Pew Research estimating that by 2040, Muslims will replace Jews as the nation’s second-largest religious group after Christians.
From Slate ● Nov. 2, 2026
Hipora, which works with businesses across East and Southern Africa, says employee theft is a huge problem, estimating that it accounts for more than 60% of losses recorded by small businesses.
From BBC ● Oct. 25, 2026
Emma Li, an analyst at energy tracker Vortexa, also reported a major drop, estimating that there were about 6 million barrels of Iranian oil off Singapore as of Oct.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 22, 2026
At 0330 in the morning he departed from Key West estimating his arrival in Ravenel at 0520.
From "The Great Santini" by Pat Conroy
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
