Approximation

How to spell approximation

13 letters · 5 syllables

1 of the 21 people asked to spell approximation in Spelling Garden got it wrong the first time.

How to pronounce approximation

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does approximation mean?

1. nounA figure or result that is close to the exact value but not precise.

Approximation in a sentence

• The builder gave us a rough approximation of the total cost before starting.

• The model produces a useful approximation of next year's sales.

Where does approximation come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin proximus, meaning 'nearest' or 'closest', which was itself the superlative of prope, meaning 'near'. From proximus the medieval Latin verb approximare was formed, with the prefix ad- (here softened to ap- before the p) carrying the sense of 'toward', so the whole idea was literally a 'drawing near to' something. English took the noun in through Old French and Latin in the late 1300s, at first in the general sense of a coming close or a near approach. The modern mathematical and scientific meaning, a value close enough to the true one to be useful, grew up alongside that and is now the dominant sense. The same proximus root sits inside everyday relatives such as 'proximity' and 'approximate', and remembering that doubled p in ap- plus the single x is the spelling trap most writers stumble over.

How the word is built

• ap- (variant of ad-: toward)
• proxim (from proximus: nearest)
• -ation (noun-forming suffix)