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Approximate vs Evaluate - What's the difference?

approximate | evaluate |

As verbs the difference between approximate and evaluate

is that approximate is to carry or advance near; to cause to approach while evaluate is to draw conclusions from examining; to assess.

As an adjective approximate

is approaching; proximate; nearly resembling.

approximate

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Approaching; proximate; nearly resembling.
  • Near correctness; nearly exact; not perfectly accurate.
    • Approximate results or values.
    To help carry out its mission, NASA's Genesis spacecraft has on board an ion monitor to record the speed, density, temperature and approximate composition of the solar wind ions.

    Antonyms

    * exact, precise

    Derived terms

    () * approximately * approximation * approximative

    Verb

    (approximat)
  • To carry or advance near; to cause to approach.
    • To approximate the inequality of riches to the level of nature. --Burke.
  • To come near to; to approach.
    • The telescope approximates perfection. --J. Morse.
  • To estimate.

    • Quotations

    When you follow two separate chains of thought, Watson, you will find some point of intersection which should approximate to the truth.
    — Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax

    evaluate

    English

    Verb

    (evaluat)
  • to draw conclusions from examining; to assess
    • It will take several years to evaluate the material gathered in the survey.
  • (mathematics) to compute or determine the value of (an expression)
    • Evaluate this polynomial.
  • To return or have a specific value.
  • * 2006 , Lev Sabinin, Larissa Sbitneva, Ivan Shestakov, Non-Associative Algebra and Its Applications , CRC Press (ISBN 9780824726690), page 201
    • Since element (15.1) evaluates' to an element of the center in any alternative algebra, (15.1) has to ' evaluate to a scalar multiple of the identity element of the Cayley-Dickson algebra.
  • * 2007 , James E. Gentle, Matrix Algebra: Theory, Computations, and Applications in Statistics , Springer Science & Business Media (ISBN 9780387708720), page 165
    • In one type of such an integral, the integrand is only the probability density function, and the integral evaluates to a probability, which of course is a scalar.

    Derived terms

    * evaluator * evaluatee

    External links

    * * *