calculate

Valid in Scrabble

Scrabble points
13
Words With Friends
18
Letters
9
Pronunciation
/ˈkælkjʊleɪt/
See all 2 pronunciations
/ˈkælkjʊleɪt/ · /ˈkælkjəleɪt/

Definition of calculate

6 senses · 1 part of speech · etymology included

verb

  1. (transitive)To determine the value of something or the solution to something by a mathematical process.
    “Calculate the square root of 3 to 10 decimal places.”
See all 6 definitions

verb

  1. (transitive)To determine the value of something or the solution to something by a mathematical process.
    “Calculate the square root of 3 to 10 decimal places.”
  2. (intransitive)To determine values or solutions by a mathematical process; reckon.
  3. (US, dialectal, intransitive)To plan; to expect; to think.
    “I stumbled along through the young pines and huckleberry bushes. Pretty soon I struck into a sort of path that, I cal’lated, might lead to the road I was hunting for. It twisted and turned, and, the first thing I knew, made a sudden bend around a bunch of bayberry scrub and opened out into a big clear space like a lawn.”
  4. To ascertain or predict by mathematical or astrological computations the time, circumstances, or other conditions of; to forecast or compute the character or consequences of.
    “to calculate or cast one’s nativity”
    “A cunning man did calculate my birth.”
  5. To adjust for purpose; to adapt by forethought or calculation; to fit or prepare by the adaptation of means to an end.
    “to calculate a system of laws for the government and protection of a free people”
    “[Religion] is […] calculated for our benefit.”
  6. To imagine sequences of potential moves and responses without actually moving the pieces.

Definitions from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA.

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin calculātus, perfect passive participle of calculō (“to reckon, compute, calculate”, originally by means of pebbles) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), from calculus (“a pebble”), further from calx (“limestone”, calc- in compounds) + -ulus (forms diminutives).

Hooks

2 extensions · 2 back

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