Figures

How to spell figures

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce figures

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does figures mean?

1. nounWritten numerals, amounts, or numerical data such as totals and statistics.
2. nounVisible forms, outlines, or labelled diagrams, including human bodies or shapes in a document.
3. verbThird-person singular form meaning to calculate, or informally to suppose or expect.

Figures in a sentence

• noun

  The sales figures for the last quarter looked encouraging.

• noun

  The report includes several figures and a colour-coded chart.

• verb

  He figures the repair will cost more than the car is worth.

• noun

  She checked the figures twice before sending the budget to her boss.

• noun

  Two shadowy figures moved across the car park at night.

• verb

  The accountant figures the total in her head before reaching for a calculator.

Where does figures come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word descends from the Latin figura, meaning 'a shape, form, or appearance', which itself grew from the verb fingere, 'to shape, mould, or fashion' (the same root that gives us 'fiction' and 'effigy'). It entered English in the 1200s through Old French figure, at first carrying the sense of a bodily shape or outward form. Because written numerals are themselves small drawn shapes, the word stretched in the late Middle Ages to mean a digit or numeral, and from there to the broader idea of amounts and statistics. The verb sense, 'to reckon or work out', followed naturally from doing arithmetic with figures, and the casual American sense 'to suppose or expect' grew out of that. The silent, unstressed '-ure' ending, pronounced like a soft 'yer', is the main spelling trap, since the letters do not match the sound.

How the word is built

• figure (form, shape, numeral)
• -s (plural noun / third-person singular verb)