calculate
English

Papers and electronic calculators are common tools for calculation.
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin calculātus, perfect passive participle of calculō (“I reckon, originally by means of pebbles”), from calculus (“a pebble”). Refer to calculus for origin.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈkælkjʊleɪt/, /ˈkælkjəleɪt/
Audio (US) (file) - Hyphenation: cal‧cu‧late
Verb
calculate (third-person singular simple present calculates, present participle calculating, simple past and past participle calculated)
- (transitive, mathematics) 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.
- (intransitive, mathematics) To determine values or solutions by a mathematical process; reckon.
- (intransitive, US, dialectal) To plan; to expect; to think.
- 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 1, in Mr. Pratt's Patients:
- 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.
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- 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.
- William Shakespeare
- A cunning man did calculate my birth.
- to calculate or cast one's nativity
- William Shakespeare
- To adjust for purpose; to adapt by forethought or calculation; to fit or prepare by the adaptation of means to an end.
- Archbishop Tillotson
- [Religion] is […] calculated for our benefit.
- to calculate a system of laws for the government and protection of a free people
- Archbishop Tillotson
Synonyms
Derived terms
Related terms
Translations
(transitive) to determine value
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(intransitive) determine values or solutions
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(intransitive) plan
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Further reading
- calculate in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
- calculate in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
- “calculate” in Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary, 2001–2019.
Latin
Verb
calculāte
- second-person plural present active imperative of calculō
- "calculate ye, compute ye"
- (figuratively) "consider ye as, esteem ye"
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