Meaning & use
tabulate
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Meanings
verbtransitive
To set out facts or numbers in a table with rows and columns so they are easier to compare.
Grammar: Takes an object: tabulate the results.
Patterns
- tabulate something
- tabulate something by something
The researchers tabulated the survey answers by age group.
Please tabulate your expenses before the meeting.
She tabulated the scores in a spreadsheet.
verbtransitiveAmerican
To count and total votes or figures, especially officially.
Grammar: Takes an object, often votes: officials tabulate ballots.
Patterns
- tabulate the votes
- tabulate the results
Election workers tabulated the ballots overnight.
It took days to tabulate the final census numbers.
The software tabulates sales totals every Friday.
Word forms
| third person singular | tabulates |
|---|---|
| past tense | tabulated |
| past participle | tabulated |
| -ing form | tabulating |
Common combinations
- tabulate results
- The team will tabulate results once the surveys are in.
- tabulate data
- It is easier to compare once you tabulate the data.
- tabulate votes
- Officials tabulate votes at the county center.
- tabulate by category
- Tabulate the figures by category and month.
- carefully tabulated
- The carefully tabulated figures showed a clear trend.
Synonyms and how they differ
- chart
- Chart can mean a graph or diagram as well as a table, so it is less specific about rows and columns.
- list
- List only means putting items one after another, while tabulate implies several columns for comparison.
- tally
- Tally stresses counting up a total, often one mark at a time, rather than laying data out.
- catalog
- Catalog means recording items in an ordered inventory, not necessarily in a table.
Word family
- table noun
- an arrangement of data in rows and columns
- tabulation noun
- the act of presenting data in a table
- tabular adjective
- arranged in a table
- tabulator noun
- a person or machine that tabulates
Commonly confused: tabulate or table?
tabulate vs table
As a verb, table means opposite things in British and American English: to put a proposal forward for discussion in Britain, but to postpone it in the US. Tabulate always means to arrange in a table.
Practice
After the experiment, the students will ____ their measurements in a table.
Choose one answer.
Tabulate is the base verb needed after 'will'. Tabled is a past form, and tabulation and tabular are a noun and an adjective.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “tabulate”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.