tabulate

American  

[tab-yuh-leyt, tab-yuh-lit, -leyt] / ˈtæb jəˌleɪt, ˈtæb jə lɪt, -ˌleɪt /

verb (used with object)

• tabulates,
  present (3rd person singular)
• tabulated,
  past participle,  past
• tabulating
  present participle

1. to put or arrange in a tabular, systematic, or condensed form; formulate tabularly.

   Synonyms:

   classify, group, sort, rank, order

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verb (used without object)

• tabulates,
  present (3rd person singular)
• tabulated,
  past participle,  past
• tabulating
  present participle

1. to operate the tab key on a typewriter; to tab.

adjective

1. shaped like a table or tablet; tabular.

2. having transverse septae, as certain corals.

tabulate British  

verb

1. Also: tabularize.  to set out, arrange, or write in tabular form

2. to form or cut with a flat surface

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adjective

1. having a flat surface

2. (of certain corals) having transverse skeletal plates

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• pretabulation
  noun
• tabulation
  noun
• pretabulate
  verb (used with object)
• retabulate
  verb (used with object)
• nontabulated
  adjective
• tabulable
  adjective
• untabulable
  adjective
• untabulated
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Participles

• tabulating
  present
• tabulated
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• tabulate
  simple
• tabulates
  simple
• have tabulated
  perfect
• has tabulated
  perfect
• am tabulating
  progressive
• are tabulating
  progressive
• is tabulating
  progressive
• have been tabulating
  perfect progressive
• has been tabulating
  perfect progressive

Past

• tabulated
  simple
• had tabulated
  perfect
• was tabulating
  progressive
• were tabulating
  progressive
• had been tabulating
  perfect progressive

Future

• will tabulate
  simple
• will have tabulated
  perfect
• will be tabulating
  progressive
• will have been tabulating
  perfect progressive

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.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

tabulate tabulates tabulated tabulating

Small businesses will be able to tabulate their taxes and check their eligibility for government-support programs, and parents will receive suggested educational content for their children.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 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

PwC is the accounting firm that tabulates the votes.

From Seattle Times ● Mar. 12, 2023

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

They and Mr. Adams stressed the importance of ensuring that voters can maintain faith in the city’s electoral process as the Board of Elections tabulates the results.

From New York Times ● Jun. 30, 2021

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

Here is a table, because it tabulates the results of the subordinate steps of this enormous calculation as far as 527 decimals: the remainder being added as results only during the printing.

From A Budget of Paradoxes, Volume II by David Eugene Smith

Last year, legislators passed a new law that requires votes to be tabulated by the 13th day after ballots close, though it doesn’t change the 30-day deadline for official results and provides several exceptions.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 2, 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

Polls are closed across many of the East Coast battleground states, and votes are being tabulated at a rapid clip.

From BBC ● Nov. 5, 2024

Their educational attainments were noted, marriages followed, illnesses tabulated, psychological health charted, and every promotion and job change dutifully recorded.

From "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell

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

After the stump speeches ended, election officials hunkered around a table in the elementary school hallway, tabulating votes written on pink scraps of paper.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 16, 2024

He remembered exactly how he had felt sitting there—listening, making notes, appreciating everything, tabulating every scrap of evidence that told against the prisoner.

From "And Then There Were None" by Agatha Christie