Approximately

How to spell approximately

13 letters · 5 syllables

How to pronounce approximately

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does approximately mean?

1. adverbTo a degree that is close but not exact; roughly or about.

Approximately in a sentence

• The flight takes approximately seven hours from London.

• The repair will cost approximately four hundred pounds.

Where does approximately come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin proximus, meaning 'nearest' or 'closest', which is itself the superlative of prope, 'near'. From proximus came the late Latin verb approximare, built with the prefix ad- (here meaning 'to' or 'toward') to mean 'to come near to' or 'to draw close'. English took the related adjective 'approximate' in the fifteenth century, originally with the sense of being close or nearly accurate, and the adverb 'approximately' followed to describe something estimated within a small margin. The same proximus root sits inside familiar relatives such as 'proximity' and 'proximate', which is a useful reminder that the middle of the word is spelled with the -xim- of proximus, not the -xem- the unstressed vowel tempts you to write. The doubled p comes from the Latin ad- prefix assimilating to the following p, giving ap-.

How the word is built

• ap- (to, toward)
• proxim (from proximus: nearest)
• -ate (adjective)
• -ly (adverb suffix)