Meaning & use
calculate
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Meanings
verbtransitive
To find an amount, number or result by doing sums or working through the figures step by step.
Grammar: Takes an object: calculate the total; it can also take a that-clause or a wh-clause: calculate how much we owe.
Patterns
- calculate something
- calculate how much/many/long
- calculate something from something
She calculated the cost of the trip before booking the flights.
Use this app to calculate how much paint you need for the room.
The engineer calculated the load from the weight of each beam.
verbtransitive
To judge what is likely to happen, or what a choice will lead to, by thinking it through carefully.
Grammar: Often followed by a noun or a that-clause: calculate the risk, calculate that prices will fall.
Patterns
- calculate the risk/odds
- calculate that something will happen
The manager calculated that a small price cut would bring in more customers.
He had not calculated how angry his sister would be.
Pilots must calculate the risks of flying in bad weather.
verbtransitiveformal
To plan or design something so that it has a particular effect; used mostly in the passive with to.
Grammar: Usually passive and followed by to plus a verb: the ad was calculated to shock.
Patterns
- be calculated to do something
The speech was calculated to calm the angry crowd.
Her cold reply was calculated to end the discussion at once.
The film's ending is calculated to make viewers cry.
Word forms
| third person singular | calculates |
|---|---|
| past tense | calculated |
| past participle | calculated |
| -ing form | calculating |
Common combinations
- calculate the cost
- Please calculate the cost of printing five hundred copies.
- calculate the average
- Teachers calculate the average of all the test scores.
- calculate the risk
- Investors try to calculate the risk before they buy shares.
- calculate precisely
- The probe's path was calculated precisely to avoid the moon.
- calculate the odds
- He quickly calculated the odds of winning and decided not to bet.
- calculate by hand
- Before computers, clerks had to calculate interest by hand.
Synonyms and how they differ
- compute
- Compute sounds more technical and is often used for numbers handled by a machine, whereas calculate works for any kind of sum or estimate.
- work out
- Work out is the casual, everyday phrasal verb and fits spoken English better than calculate, which sounds more careful.
- reckon
- Reckon suggests a rougher, quicker count or estimate, and in British speech it can simply mean think.
- estimate
- Estimate admits the answer is only approximate, while calculate suggests an exact result from known figures.
Word family
- calculation noun
- the act or result of working something out with numbers
- calculator noun
- a device or person that does sums
- calculating adjective
- planning in a cold, selfish way to gain an advantage
- calculable adjective
- able to be worked out in numbers
- miscalculate verb
- to work something out wrongly or judge a situation badly
Commonly confused: calculate or calibrate? calculate or culculate?
calculate vs calibrate
Calibrate means to adjust an instrument so its readings are accurate. It does not mean to do a sum; you calculate with numbers but calibrate a scale or sensor.
calculate vs culculate
This is a misspelling. The correct spelling is calculate, with an an after the c and a l before the second c: c-a-l-c-u-l-a-t-e.
Practice
Which sentence uses calculate to mean doing sums to find an amount?
Choose one answer.
Calculate the total means work out the amount using figures. The first option uses calculated to mean designed to have an effect, the third is a guess rather than a computation, and the last is ungrammatical because calculate takes a direct object, not of.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “calculate”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.