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  1. approximate love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. adj. Almost exact or correct: the approximate time of the accident.
  2. adj. Very similar; closely resembling: sketched an approximate likeness of the suspect.
  3. adj. Botany Close together but not united.
  4. v. To come close to; be nearly the same as: This meat substitute approximates the real thing.
  5. v. To bring near.
  6. v. To bring together, as cut edges of tissue.
  7. v. To come near or close, as in degree, nature, or quality.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. To carry or bring near; advance closely upon; cause to approach in position, quality, character, condition, etc.
  2. To come near; approach closely; figuratively, to stand in intimate relation; be remarkably similar.
  3. Near in position; near to; close together. Specifically — In anatomy, applied to teeth so arranged in the jaw that there is no vacancy between them, as the teeth of man.
  4. In botany, said of leaves or other organs that stand near together.
  5. Near in character; very similar: as, a statement closely approximate to a falsehood.
  6. Nearly approaching accuracy or correctness; nearly precise, perfect, or complete: as, an approximate result; approximate values.

Wiktionary

  1. adj. Approaching; proximate; nearly resembling.
  2. adj. Near correctness; nearly exact; not perfectly accurate.
  3. v. To carry or advance near; to cause to approach.
  4. v. To come near to; to approach.
  5. v. To estimate.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. adj. Approaching; proximate; nearly resembling.
  2. adj. Near correctness; nearly exact; not perfectly accurate.
  3. v. To carry or advance near; to cause to approach.
  4. v. To come near to; to approach.
  5. v. To draw; to approach.

WordNet 3.0

  1. v. be close or similar
  2. adj. located close together
  3. v. judge tentatively or form an estimate of (quantities or time)
  4. adj. not quite exact or correct
  5. adj. very close in resemblance

Etymologies

  1. From Latin approximatus, past participle of approximare ("to approach"); ad + proximare ("to come near"). See proximate. (Wiktionary)
  2. Middle English, from Late Latin approximātus, past participle of approximāre, to approach : Latin ad-, ad- + proximāre, to come near (from proximus, nearest; see per1 in Indo-European roots). (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

  • “The term approximate is used above by reason of the fact that no sharps or flats were written until long after this period, but it is thought that they were occasionally interpolated by the singers quite a long time before it became customary to put them into the notation.”

    A Popular History of the Art of Music From the Earliest Times Until the Present

  • “A couple of weeks ago, Channel 4's Time Team archaeology programme was investigating a Roman mansio, which they described as the approximate equivalent of a motel and wayside inn, in the South of England.”

    Horseshoes in Roman and post-Roman use

  • “The Magic Towns, in approximate order of their date of designation, are:”

    Did you know? Mexico has 36 Magic Towns.

  • “There was the one about her walking home from school (uphill both ways in the snow) and seeing a man sitting on his “honkers” (the best translation we can approximate is “haunches” but it sounded much, much scarier with “honkers” inserted) on the side of the road.”

    Believe | The Stiletto Gang

  • “Most of all, they demonstrate how messy and approximate is the business of statecraft.”

    The Courtier

  • “Some of the words above seem deceptively simple, but more than often they have meanings that can only be expressed in approximate ways in other languages.”

    Reflective Surface - Archives: 2004 June

  • “Let us look first at the problem of inflation, since it is a fundamental assumption of any international monetary system that rates of exchange correspond in approximate fashion to the purchasing power of the two currencies in their respective countries.”

    Money Makes the Mare To Go

  • “This may have come from the early 70s Marvel "Origins of Superheroes" (title approximate) hardcover.”

    Comics Should Be Good! @ Comic Book Resources

  • “First, we can ask whether a given hypothesis is a good approximation of the underlying social reality--that is, the approximate truth of the hypothesis.”

    Archive 2008-12-01

  • “Apart from the usual complaints about the elusiveness of the notion of approximate truth, antirealists have taken issue with this reply for two (related) reasons.”

    Models in Science

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synonyms (9)

Words with the same meaning

  1. approaching
  1. proximate
  1. approach
  1. draw
  1. rough
  1. round
  1. near
  1. numbers
  1. closed

equivalents (2)

Other words for ‘approximate’

  1. close
  1. inexact

same context (14)

Words that are found in similar contexts

  1. exact
  2. numerical
  1. optimum
  2. nominal
  1. theoretical
  2. correspond
  1. maximum
  2. geographical
  1. proportional
  2. comparable
  1. geometrical
  2. spatial
  1. finite
  2. acceptable

rhymes (1)

Words with the same terminal sound

  1. proximate

reverse dictionary (113)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. quantise
  2. quantize
  3. truncate
  4. approach
  5. thorium
  6. approximate
  7. mechanical
  8. estimate
  9. comparability
  10. off the top of my head
  11. heuristic
  12. fault-plane
  13. moriogram
  14. search-ephemeris
  15. nealogy
  16. parastichy
  17. pewter-mill
  18. roughing-rolls
  19. radiocarbon dating
  20. helicoid
  21. whereabouts
  22. magnetic pole
  1. approximately
  2. approximative
  3. cable's length
  4. cuboid
  5. pedometer
  6. tannic acid
  7. puerperium
  8. Fourier series
  9. proximate
  10. nominal quote
  11. error
  12. fractional crystallization
  13. turkey-sized
  14. wolf-sized
  15. sex change
  16. x-ray
  17. square
  18. round
  19. heart
  20. roughing
  21. pig-sized
  22. rabbit-sized
  1. region
  2. shrew-sized
  3. sparrow-sized
  4. square block
  5. squirrel-sized
  6. atom
  7. assonance
  8. radio
  9. earnest
  10. ecliptic
  11. exact
  12. liberal
  13. sound
  14. odd
  15. neighborhood
  16. skepticism
  17. indirect
  18. iteration
  19. syllable
  20. vicinity
  21. dog-sized
  22. ferret-sized
  1. grape-sized
  2. human-sized
  3. idea
  4. kiwi-sized
  5. mouse-sized
  6. orange-sized
  7. sort
  8. apple-sized
  9. approximation
  10. cherry-sized
  11. cookie-sized
  12. crow-sized
  13. cube
  14. estimation
  15. to come near to
  16. orometer
  17. peccavi
  18. pedrail
  19. point
  20. structural formula
  21. century
  22. convergent
  1. distant
  2. extrapolation
  3. hemistich
  4. incline
  5. interpolation
  6. isocolon
  7. measure
  8. pecten
  9. pistol-shot
  10. position
  11. pronunciation
  12. real
  13. retouching
  14. rough
  15. serenity
  16. silphidæ
  17. axis
  18. durchmusterung
  19. locality
  20. masrium
  21. roughing-out
  22. sigma
  1. tangentometer
  2. uranometria
  3. tare

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‘approximate’ has been looked up 2252 times, added to 15 lists, and has a Scrabble score of 24.