approximate

• approx. (abbreviation, also for adverb approximately)

From Latin approximatus, past participle of approximare (“to approach”); ad + proximare (“to come near”). See proximate.

Adjective

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ə.ˈpɹɒk.sɪ.mət/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ə.ˈpɹɑk.sə.mət/, /ə.ˈpɹɑk.sɪ.mət/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Verb

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ə.ˈpɹɒk.sɪ.meɪt/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ə.ˈpɹɑk.sə.meɪt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

approximate (comparative more approximate, superlative most approximate)

1. Approaching; proximate; nearly resembling.
2. Nearing correctness; nearly exact; not perfectly accurate.

   approximate results or values

   NASA's Genesis spacecraft has on board an ion monitor to record the speed, density, temperature and approximate composition of the solar wind ions.

• close

• exact, precise

approximate (third-person singular simple present approximates, present participle approximating, simple past and past participle approximated)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To estimate.

   I approximated the value of pi by taking 22 divided by 7.

   • 2022 January 12, Sir Michael Holden, “Reform of the workforce or death by a thousand cuts?”, in RAIL, number 948, page 22:

     As yet, we don't know what the comparable figures will be like for the current financial year which ends in March 2022, but we can have a good stab at approximating them.

2. (transitive) To come near to; to approach.
   • 1911, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax:

     When you follow two separate chains of thought, Watson, you will find some point of intersection which should approximate to the truth.

   • 1802, Jedidiah Morse, The American Universal Geography:

     The telescope approximates perfection.

3. (transitive) To carry or advance near; to cause to approach.
   • 1790 November, Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, and on the Proceedings in Certain Societies in London Relative to that Event. […], London: […] J[ames] Dodsley, […], →OCLC:

     to approximate the inequality of riches to the level of nature

approximāte

1. second-person plural present active imperative of approximō