Word.ws English Dictionary

approximate

UK/əˈpɹɒk.sɪ.mət//əˈpɹɑk.sə.mət/

approximate adjective: approaching; proximate; nearly resembling.

Adjective

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.
    Synonyms:
    crude
  3. Drawn close together, but not united.

Noun

approximate (plural approximates)

  1. (rare) An approximate result or quantity.

Verb

UK/əˈpɹɒk.sɪ.meɪt/US/əˈpɹɑk.sə.meɪt/

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

  1. (ambitransitive) To estimate.
    • I approximated the value of pi by taking 22 divided by 7.
    • 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.2022 January 12, Sir Michael Holden, “Reform of the workforce or death by a thousand cuts?”, in RAIL, number 948, page 22
  2. (transitive) To come near to; to approach.
    • When you follow two separate chains of thought, Watson, you will find some point of intersection which should approximate to the truth.1911, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax
    • The telescope approximates perfection.1802, Jedidiah Morse, The American Universal Geography
  3. (transitive) To carry or advance near; to cause to approach.
    • to approximate the inequality of riches to the level of nature1790 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

approximate meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

approximate in Hindi

approximate
क़रीब qarīb
approximate, rough
सन्निकट sannikaṭ

approximate in Tamil

கிட்டத் தட்ட, தோராயமாக, சுமார், ஏறத்தாழ, அண்ணளவு, மிக்க அண்மையில் உள்ள

approximate in Urdu

approximate
قریب qarīb

approximate in Bengali

আনুমানিক, আসন্ন, সর্বাপেক্ষা নিকটবর্তী, পরবর্তী, গড়পড়তা, সন্নিকটবর্তী করান
More languagesFewer languages
approximate in Malayalam
ഏകദേശ ēkadēśa, ഏകദേശമായ ēkadēśamāya
approximate in Kannada
ಸುಮಾರು sumāru
approximate in Odia
ଆନୁମାନିକ
approximate in Tagalog
madapit
approximate in Arabic
تَقْرِيبِيّ taqrībiyy
approximate in Vietnamese
xấp xỉ, xêm xêm

Examples of approximate in a sentence

  • Implement a program that computes the approximate grade level needed to comprehend some text, per the below.
  • The genera by which two families approximate are called osculant genera.
  • One rule of thumb is that the width of an adult thumb can approximate a length of one inch.

All 40 example sentences with approximate

Synonyms of approximate

Antonyms

Forms of approximate

Adjective
comparativemore approximate
superlativemost approximate
alternative formapprox.
Noun
pluralapproximates
Verb
third-person singular presentapproximates
present participleapproximating
past participleapproximated
pastapproximated

Past tense of approximate: approximated

Origin of approximate

From Middle English approximat(e) (“close, near (to); similar; intimate”, also used as the past participle of approximaten), from Latin approximātus, the perfect passive participle of approximō (see -ate (adjective-forming suffix)), further from ad- (“to, towards, at”) + proximō (“to come near”). The noun was derived from the adjective through substantivization, see -ate (noun-forming suffix). See also proximate. By surface analysis, ap- + proximate.

From Middle English approximaten (“to bring, put close (to)”), from approximat(e) (“close, near (to); similar; intimate”, also used as the past participle of approximaten) + -en (verb-forming suffix), borrowed from Latin approximātus, see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and Etymology 1 for more.

Words formed from approximate

Questions about approximate

What does approximate mean?
Approximate means approaching; proximate; nearly resembling.
What is approximate in Hindi?
Approximate in Hindi is क़रीब (qarīb), सन्निकट (sannikaṭ). See Approximate meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is approximate?
Approximate can be an adjective, a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce approximate?
Approximate is pronounced /əˈpɹɒk.sɪ.mət/ (UK).

Words near approximate in the dictionary

  1. approximand
  2. approximands
  3. approximant
  4. approximants
  5. approximatable
  6. approximate
  7. approximated
  8. approximatedly
  9. approximately
  10. approximateness
  11. approximates

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: approximate (page history and authors); क़रीब (Hindi) (page history and authors); approximate (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); قریب (Urdu) (page history and authors); approximate (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ಸುಮಾರು (Kannada) (page history and authors); approximate (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-approximate-adj.ogg.

Cite this entry: “approximate.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/approximate. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.