tabulate
Americanverb (used with object)
verb (used without object)
adjective
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shaped like a table or tablet; tabular.
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having transverse septae, as certain corals.
verb
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Also: tabularize. to set out, arrange, or write in tabular form
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to form or cut with a flat surface
adjective
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having a flat surface
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(of certain corals) having transverse skeletal plates
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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pretabulationnoun
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tabulationnoun
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pretabulateverb (used with object)
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retabulateverb (used with object)
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nontabulatedadjective
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tabulableadjective
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untabulableadjective
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untabulatedadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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tabulatesimple
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tabulatessimple
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have tabulatedperfect
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has tabulatedperfect
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am tabulatingprogressive
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are tabulatingprogressive
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is tabulatingprogressive
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have been tabulatingperfect progressive
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has been tabulatingperfect progressive
Past
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tabulatedsimple
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had tabulatedperfect
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was tabulatingprogressive
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were tabulatingprogressive
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had been tabulatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of tabulate
1590–1600; (adj.) < Late Latin tabulātus, past participle of tabulāre to fit with planks, floor; table, -ate 1; (v.) < Latin tabul ( a ), for table + -ate 1
Explanation
To tabulate information is to organize it into a table. If your friend borrows money from you every week, you might want to tabulate what she owes you. Tabulating is a way of processing information or data by putting it in a table. This doesn't mean the kind of table you eat off of, though. It refers to a table, or chart, with rows and columns. When tabulating, you might have to make calculations. Someone who enjoys tabulating financial information might make a good accountant.
Vocabulary lists containing tabulate
The Giver
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Lifting as We Climb
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"Journeys," Vocabulary from Lesson 7
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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:
About 15% of his users have turned on the “paid pool” feature that lets them collect entry fees through Venmo and tabulate payouts when the Oscars are over.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 12, 2026
The former was the first census in which a computer was used to tabulate the data.
From BBC ● Dec. 30, 2025
It has 20 scanners to tabulate ballots, all of which will be running on election night.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 21, 2024
The state party will tabulate results from all the precincts and release the statewide totals to the public.
From New York Times ● Jan. 15, 2024
In addition, I mentioned factors disqualifying big mammalian candidates for domestication, but I did not tabulate how many candidates are disqualified by each factor on each continent.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
This tabulates into a lot of scripts passing through the program, many of which have gone on to national and international acclaim.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 5, 2022
“We are confident that our system tabulates properly,” said Helen Nolan, the deputy director clerk recorder in San Luis Obispo County.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 15, 2021
Here, the media actually assembles the results from 50 states, tabulates them and declares a victor.
From New York Times ● Aug. 2, 2020
Michael Lanza, a spokesman for the New York City Health Department, said every deceased person with a lab-confirmed covid-19 diagnosis is being counted in the fatality numbers the city tabulates.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 9, 2020
Any system which analyzes and tabulates stages of contemplation and ecstasy may be suspected of being late and of having lost something of the glow and impetus which its cold formulæ try to explain.
From Hinduism and Buddhism, An Historical Sketch, Vol. 1 by Eliot, Charles, Sir
By the time all votes were tabulated two weeks after election day, Bass had come out on top, with 43% of the vote compared with Caruso’s 36%.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 5, 2026
Nearly a third of YouTube’s revenue now comes from its subscription products, while advertising on its free platform generated over $40 billion in revenue last year, MoffettNathanson tabulated.
From MarketWatch ● Mar. 9, 2026
Tatiana Edwards, who teaches special-education math at Sierra Sands’ China Lake Junior High School, said she hasn’t tabulated the improvement in grades yet but has noticed students performing better.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 27, 2025
However, the chart and the figures circulating online were based on preliminary vote totals, which continue to go up as final results are still being tabulated.
From BBC ● Nov. 8, 2024
All of his volunteer hours would be carefully tabulated at the Hall of Open Records.
From "The Giver" by Lois Lowry
Up until the mid to late 1950s, Social Security records were stored manually or with electromechanical machines, including punched cards and early tabulating equipment.
From MarketWatch ● Jan. 16, 2026
As a physician, my focus is roped tightly around a very narrow notion of healing: I follow a blueprint of tabulating signs and symptoms, rendering diagnoses, and setting forth treatments.
From Salon ● Jun. 4, 2024
Upon tabulating the scores, the researchers found that sentiments around air taxis are generally positive among the participants.
From Science Daily ● May 28, 2024
Aguilar cited state law in making the recommendation to county election officials that also include tabulating mail ballots as early voting is underway.
From Seattle Times ● May 22, 2024
The possibility that Mendel had deduced a fundamental natural rule—a dangerous law—by tabulating pea hybrids seemed absurd and far-fetched to Nägeli.
From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee
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.
