Can you give me an ____ distance to the nearest gas station, even if not exact?
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
Can you give me an ____ time for when you think the task will be done?.
Word Origin & History
Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *h₂éd
Proto-Italic *ad
Proto-Italic *ad-
Latin ad-
Latin proximō
Latin approximō
Latin approximātusder.
Middle English approximat
English approximate
From Middle English approximat(e) (“close, near (to); similar; intimate”, also used as the past participle of approximaten), from Latin approximātus, the perfect passive participle of approximō (see -ate (adjective-forming suffix)), further from ad- (“to, towards, at”) + proximō (“to come near”). The noun was derived from the adjective through substantivization, see -ate (noun-forming suffix). See also proximate. By surface analysis, ap- + proximate.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"As yet, we don't know what the comparable figures will be like for the current financial year which ends in March 2022, but we can have a good stab at approximating them."
— 2022 January 12, Sir Michael Holden, “Reform of the workforce or death by a thousand cuts?”, in RAIL, number 948, page 22:
"When you follow two separate chains of thought, Watson, you will find some point of intersection which should approximate to the truth."
— 1911, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax:
"The telescope approximates perfection."
— 1802, Jedidiah Morse, The American Universal Geography:
"to approximate the inequality of riches to the level of nature"
— 1790 November, Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, and on the Proceedings in Certain Societies in London Relative to that Event. […], London: […] J[ames] Dodsley, […], →OCLC: