compute

compute

See also: computé

English

Etymology

17th century. Borrowed from French computer, from Latin computō (“calculate, compute”). Doublet of count.

Pronunciation

• enPR: kəm-pyo͞ot', IPA^(key): /kəmˈpjuːt/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: com‧pute
• Rhymes: -uːt

Verb

compute (third-person singular simple present computes, present participle computing, simple past and past participle computed)

1. (transitive) To reckon, calculate.

   Can anyone here compute the square root of 10201?

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book VI”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], OCLC 228722708; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554, lines 680–687:

     Effulgence of my Glorie, Son belov’d, / Son in whoſe face inviſible is beheld / Viſibly, what by Deitie I am, / And in whoſe hand what by Decree I doe, / Second Omnipotence, two dayes are paſt, / Two dayes, as we compute the dayes of Heav’n, / Since Michael and his Powers went forth to tame / Theſe diſobedient […]

   • 1913, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Poison Belt‎:

     "When we have ascertained exactly how little will serve we shall be able to compute how long we shall be able to exist."

   • 2018, Clarence Green; James Lambert, “Advancing disciplinary literacy through English for academic purposes: Discipline-specific wordlists, collocations and word families for eight secondary subjects”, in Journal of English for Academic Purposes, volume 35, DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2018.07.004, page 112:

     Coxhead (2000) computed that the AWL covered approximately 10% of the academic corpus from which it was derived[.]

2. (intransitive, informal) To make sense. (commonly used in mimicry of a science fictional robot and spoken in a robotic voice; most frequently in negative constructs)

   Does that compute, or do I need to explain further?

   • 1967 August 2, The Australian Women's Weekly, page 46, column 2:

     And you'd feel an utter fool if, when you asked where the biscuit was, a message came out: "Biscuits do not compute. Your wife programmed your diet."

   • 1977 December 15, The Canberra Times, page 15, column 3:

     Guitarist Chris Stein is also against defining the music. When he sees a reporter with a notebook backstage after a concert he does robot impersonations saying, 'What is punk rock? What is punk rock? Brurruph, burruph, does not compute.'

Derived terms

• computability
• computable
• computed axial tomography
• computed tomography
• does not compute

 

Related terms

• computation
• computational
• computer
• computing
• count
• miscompute
• noncomputing
• recompute

 

Translations

to reckon or calculate

Bulgarian: пресмятам (bg) (presmjatam), изчислявам (bg) (izčisljavam) Catalan: computar (ca) Chinese: Mandarin: 計算／计算 (zh) (jìsuàn) Czech: počítat (cs), sčítat (cs) Dutch: uitrekenen (nl), berekenen (nl) Esperanto: komputi (eo) Finnish: laskea (fi) French: computer (fr), calculer (fr) Galician: computar (gl) Georgian: გამოთვლა (gamotvla) German: berechnen (de), rechnen (de), errechnen (de) Ido: kalkular (io) Irish: áirigh, comhair, ríomh Italian: computare (it), elaborare (it), calcolare (it) Japanese: 計算する (ja) (けいさんする, keisan suru) Latin: computō, calculō, supputō Latvian: izskaitļot Old French: computer Portuguese: computar (pt), calcular (pt) Russian: вычисля́ть (ru) impf (vyčisljátʹ), вы́числить (ru) pf (výčislitʹ), счита́ть (ru) impf (sčitátʹ), посчита́ть (ru) pf (posčitátʹ), счесть (ru) pf (sčestʹ), подсчи́тывать (ru) impf (podsčítyvatʹ), подсчита́ть (ru) pf (podsčitátʹ), исчисля́ть (ru) impf (isčisljátʹ), исчи́слить (ru) pf (isčíslitʹ) Scottish Gaelic: àireamh, àireamhaich, coimpiutaich, coimpiutairich, cunnt, nuimhrich, tomhais Slovak: počítať (sk), vypočítať Spanish: computar (es), calcular (es) Swedish: beräkna (sv), räkna ut (sv) Tagalog: tuusin, magtuos Turkish: hesaplamak (tr)

to make sense — see make sense

Noun

compute (uncountable)

1. (computing, informal) computation
   • 2015, J. Powell, Mastering vRealize Automation 6.2 (page 41)

     Once you have the total, does it exceed the maximum amount of compute that can be served up in your vCenter environment? It is quite normal for users to consume everything you provide.

   • 2016, Joe Baron, Hisham Baz, Tim Bixler, AWS Certified Solutions Architect Official Study Guide: Associate Exam

     To change the amount of compute and memory, you can select a different DB Instance class of the database.

Further reading

• compute in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• compute in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911

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French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kɔ̃.pyt/

• Audio

  (file)

• Homophones: computent, computes

Verb

compute

1. inflection of computer:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. second-person singular imperative

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Portuguese

Pronunciation

 

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /kõˈpu.t͡ʃi/

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /kõˈpu.t͡ʃi/
  • (Southern Brazil) IPA^(key): /kõˈpu.te/

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /kõˈpu.t(ɨ)/

• Hyphenation: com‧pu‧te

Verb

compute

1. inflection of computar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

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Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /komˈpute/ [kõmˈpu.t̪e]
• Rhymes: -ute
• Syllabification: com‧pu‧te

Verb

compute

1. inflection of computar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative