Estimate

How to spell estimate

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce estimate

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does estimate mean?

1. verbTo form an approximate judgement of a number, value, or extent.
2. nounAn approximate calculation or a quoted price for work to be done.

Estimate in a sentence

• verb

  The surveyor will estimate how much the repairs are likely to cost.

• noun

  The builder sent a written estimate for the kitchen renovation.

• verb

  Analysts estimate the project will take roughly eighteen months.

• noun

  Her estimate of the travel time turned out to be remarkably accurate.

Where does estimate come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word comes from the Latin verb aestimare, which meant 'to value', 'to appraise', or 'to set a price on'. Roman usage covered both judging the monetary worth of something and forming a general opinion of its quality, so from the very beginning the idea blended counting with judging. English took the word in during the sixteenth century, partly through the related word 'esteem', which shares exactly the same Latin root but kept the older sense of valuing a person highly. That shared ancestry explains why 'estimate' and 'esteem' look so alike. The modern spelling preserves the Latin stem, and the trap for writers is the quiet middle vowel: the unstressed 'i' in estim- is easy to drop or swap, even though it is right there in the original aestimare.

How the word is built

• estim- (from Latin aestimare: to value, appraise)
• -ate (verb/noun suffix)