extrapolate
English
WOTD – 22 October 2008
Etymology
From extra- + (inter)polate.
Pronunciation
- (UK, US) IPA(key): /ɛkˈstɹæp.əˌleɪt/, /ɪk-/
Audio (US) (file) Audio (AU) (file)
Verb
extrapolate (third-person singular simple present extrapolates, present participle extrapolating, simple past and past participle extrapolated)
- (transitive) To infer by extending known information.
- 1992, Rudolf M[athias] Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, New York, N.Y.: Columbia University Press, →ISBN, page vii:
- With fresh material, taxonomic conclusions are leavened by recognition that the material examined reflects the site it occupied; a herbarium packet gives one only a small fraction of the data desirable for sound conclusions. Herbarium material does not, indeed, allow one to extrapolate safely: what you see is what you get […]
-
- (transitive, mathematics) To estimate the value of a variable outside a known range from values within that range by assuming that the estimated value follows logically from the known ones
Antonyms
- (mathematics): interpolate
Related terms
- extrapolation
- extrapolator
- extrapolative
Translations
to infer by extending known information
|
|
to estimate the value of a variable outside a known range
|
|