Calculated

How to spell calculated

10 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce calculated

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does calculated mean?

1. adjectiveDone with full awareness of the likely result; deliberate and planned rather than spontaneous.
2. verbWorked out or determined a result by reckoning with numbers.

Calculated in a sentence

• adjective

  He took a calculated risk by investing in the new venture early.

• verb

  The accountant calculated the exact tax owed before the deadline.

• adjective

  Her calculated silence during the meeting made the others uneasy.

• verb

  She calculated how much paint the whole room would need.

Where does calculated come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin noun calculus, which literally meant a small pebble or little stone. In the ancient world such pebbles were placed on a counting board or abacus to tally sums, so the verb calculare came to mean 'to reckon with stones', that is, to compute. English took the verb 'calculate' from Latin in the 1500s, and the past form and adjective 'calculated' soon followed. Over time the adjective sense broadened from simple arithmetic to 'planned with deliberate forethought', as in a calculated risk, where the figurative reckoning is of likely consequences rather than numbers. The humble pebble also survives in the medical word 'calculus' for a kidney stone and in the mathematics named calculus, all sharing that same stony root.

How the word is built

• calcul- (from Latin calculus: pebble used for counting)
• -ate (verb-forming)
• -ed (past tense / adjective suffix)