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Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. v. To ascertain by computation; reckon: calculating the area of a circle; calculated their probable time of arrival.
  2. v. To make an estimate of; evaluate: calculating the team's chances of winning.
  3. v. To make for a deliberate purpose; design: a sturdy car that is calculated to last for years; a choice that was calculated to please.
  4. v. Chiefly New England To suppose: "I cal'late she's a right smart cook” ( Dialect Notes).
  5. v. Chiefly New England To plan, intend, or count on.
  6. v. To perform a mathematical process; figure: We must measure and calculate to determine how much paint will be needed.
  7. v. To predict consequences.
  8. v. Regional To suppose; guess.
  9. v. Regional To count, depend, or rely on someone or something: We're calculating on your help.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. To ascertain by computation; compute; reckon up arithmetically or by items: as, to calculate interest, or the cost of a house.
  2. To make an estimate of; compute by weighing related facts or circumstances in the mind: as, to calculate chances or probabilities.
  3. To fit or prepare by the adaptation of means to the end; make suitable; plan: generally in the perfect participle, and frequently (though improperly) in the sense of fitted, without any thought of intentional adaptation.
  4. To purpose; intend; design: as, he calculates to do it; he calculates to go.
  5. To think; guess. Synonyms and Calculate, Compute, Reckon, Count. Calculate applies to the most elaborate and varied mathematical processes: as, to calculate an eclipse or a nativity. Compute is more applicable to the simpler processes: as, to compute the interest on a note. But mathematicians make the opposite distinction; in their language, to compute means to make elaborate calculations with the art of a person trained to this business. Reckon is essentially the same as compute, but may be simpler yet: as, to reckon interest, or the amount of a bill, or the days to a coming event. To count is to reckon one by one. The figurative uses of these words are not suggested by any comparison of their literal meanings; in them all some mental estimate may be supposed to be made, akin to an arithmetical process. “I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” Rom. viii. 18. The use of calculate for reckon in such a case as this is an Americanism. “I count not myself to have apprehended.” Phil. iii. 13. Reckon may be used in such a connection, but not the other two words.
  6. To make a computation; arrive at a conclusion after weighing all the circumstances; form an estimate; reckon: as, we calculate better for ourselves than for others; to calculate on (that is, with expectation of) fine weather.
  7. To speculate about future events; predict.
  8. To suppose or believe, after deliberation; think; ‘guess’; ‘reckon’: as, you are wrong there, I calculate.
  9. n. Calculation.

Wiktionary

  1. v. To determine the value of something or the solution to something by a mathematical process.
  2. v. To determine values or solutions by a mathematical process.
  3. v. To plan something, especially something morally wrong.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. v. To ascertain or determine by mathematical processes, usually by the ordinary rules of arithmetic; to reckon up; to estimate; to compute.
  2. v. 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.
  3. v. To adjust for purpose; to adapt by forethought or calculation; to fit or prepare by the adaptation of means to an end.
  4. v. To plan; to expect; to think.
  5. v. To make a calculation; to forecast consequences; to estimate; to compute.

WordNet 3.0

  1. v. judge to be probable
  2. v. keep an account of
  3. v. predict in advance
  4. v. specifically design a product, event, or activity for a certain public
  5. v. make a mathematical calculation or computation
  6. v. have faith or confidence in

Etymologies

  1. Late Latin calculāre, calculāt-, from Latin calculus, small stone used in reckoning, diminutive of calx, calc-, small stone for gaming; see calx.

Examples

  • “I can get around this by defining a body class and calling it, but would like to understand why it is behaving the way it is. getDB (); if (($calculate-validateUser ($userName, $password) = = "FALSE") or ($calculate - abduraooft”

    CodingForums.com

  • “From below: what families spend a lot more on, the authors calculate, is a house in a safe neighborhood with a good school — about 70 percent more a year, discounted for inflation, for the typical family of four.”

    Two-Handed on Vouchers, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty

  • “Jeff Madrick discusses the work of Elizabeth Warren and Amelia Warren Tyagi on the plight of middle-class two-income families with children. what families spend a lot more on, the authors calculate, is a house in a safe neighborhood with a good school — about 70 percent more a year, discounted for inflation, for the typical family of four.”

    Imputed Income, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty

  • “Did McCain calculate the amount of lives and money involve?”

    McCain launches '2013' web ad

  • “We do not keep house at a joint expence; but they pay me for what I calculate is the extra expence, and that is not much.”

    New Letters from Charles Brown to Joseph Severn

  • “All that the numerous “heritability” studies calculate is the relative variance associated with “heredity” and “environment” given a pre-existing set of both.”

    How Many Generations of Imbeciles Is Enough?

  • “Jeff Madrick discusses the work of Elizabeth Warren and Amelia Warren Tyagi on the plight of middle-class two-income families with children. what families spend a lot more on, the authors calculate, is a house in a safe neighborhood with a ...”

    EconLog: September 2003 Archives

  • “For different agonists acting on the same receptor, one could calculate from the KA values the fractional occupation by each to obtain the same standard response before receptor inactivation, and thus obtain relative efficacies.”

    Robert F. Furchgott - Autobiography

  • “Then, by means of a sudden expansion of the air, which was saturated with steam, he effected a condensation of the steam on the electrically charged small particles, the size of which he could calculate from the velocity with which they sank.”

    Nobel Prize in Physics 1906 - Presentation Speech

  • “Using the heat theorem discovered by you it has now become possible on the one hand to calculate from the heat evolution during chemical reactions and the specific heats, the chemical affinity and the maximum possible output of energy during chemical reactions, and on the other hand to calculate the equilibrium in reactions not yet studied.”

    Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1920 - Presentation Speech

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‘calculate’ has been looked up 1344 times, loved by 2 people, added to 12 lists, and has a Scrabble score of 13.