Simulation

How to spell simulation

10 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce simulation

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does simulation mean?

1. nounAn imitation of a real process or system, often run on a computer, used for training, testing, or study.

Simulation in a sentence

• The pilots trained for the emergency in a flight simulation.

• The engineers ran a computer simulation to predict how the bridge would behave under load.

Where does simulation come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin simulare, meaning 'to make like' or 'to imitate', which was built on similis, the Latin adjective for 'like' or 'similar'. The noun simulatio in Latin originally carried a faintly negative shade, describing pretence or a deceptive show of something that was not real, so an early sense of the English word was 'a false pretence'. English took it in through Old French during the 1300s, and for centuries it leaned on that idea of feigning or counterfeiting. The modern, neutral technical meaning, an imitation of a real process for study or training, grew up much later alongside science and computing in the twentieth century. The close cousin 'similar' shares the same similis root, and remembering that link helps fix the single l and the -ation ending that catch many writers.

How the word is built

• simul- (from simulare: to copy, imitate, from similis 'like')
• -ation (noun of action)