estimateverb [ T ]
uk/ˈes.tɪ.meɪt/us/ˈes.tə.meɪt/B2 to guess or calculate the cost, size, value, etc. of something:
Government sources estimate a long-term 50 percent increase in rail fares.
[ + (that) ] They estimate (that) the journey will take at least two weeks.
[ + question word ] It was difficult to estimate how many trees had been destroyed.
More examples
- Red Cross officials estimate that 20 000 refugees streamed into the city last week.
- The estimated costs of the building project are well over £1 million.
- We had estimated about 300 visitors, but the actual number was much higher.
- We estimate the potential market for the new phones to be around one million people in this country alone.
- It has been estimated that one in eight couples is infertile.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Estimating value
- appraise
- appraiser
- cost
- costing
- est
- figure
- get/have your money's worth idiom
- goodwill
- index
- index of leading economic indicators
- index-linked
- indexation
- money
- price
- put a figure on it idiom
- quote
- RRP
- underestimate
- valuer
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estimated
adjective uk/ˈes.tɪ.meɪ.tɪd/us/ˈes.tə.meɪ.t̬ɪd/
Examples
- The estimated costs of the building project are well over £1 million.
- The 77th edition of the Indianapolis 500 was held before an estimated 450 000 fans.
- There are an estimated 1.5 million HIV carriers in the country.
- The bridge was begun five years ago and the estimated cost has already doubled.
- The estimated worth of the plastics and petrochemical industry is about $640 billion.
B2
an estimated cost/value
estimatenoun [ C ]
uk/ˈes.tɪ.mət/us/ˈes.tə.mət/B2 a guess of what the size, value, amount, cost, etc. of something might be:
The number of people who applied for the course was 120 compared with an initial estimate of between 50 and 100.
We'll accept the lowest of three estimates for the building work.
a conservative (= low) estimate
a rough (= not exact) estimate
More examples
- She made a rough estimate/calculation of the likely cost.
- If I said there were three million unemployed, that would be a conservative estimate.
- Their estimate of the cost of the project was wildly inaccurate.
- Our estimates were only out by a few dollars.
- We'll accept the lowest of three estimates for the building work.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Guesses and assumptions
- a shot in the dark idiom
- approximation
- assumption
- ballpark
- bet
- conjecture
- educated guess
- guess
- guesstimate
- overestimate
- preception
- preconception
- presumption
- presupposition
- proposition
- shot
- sneaking
- speculation
- supposition
- surmise
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