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Estimate vs Evaluate - What's the difference?

estimate | evaluate |

As verbs the difference between estimate and evaluate

is that estimate is to calculate roughly, often from imperfect data while evaluate is to draw conclusions from examining; to assess.

As a noun estimate

is a rough calculation or guess.

estimate

English

Alternative forms

* (archaic)

Noun

(en noun)
  • A rough calculation or guess.
  • (construction and business) A document (or verbal notification) specifying how much a job will probably cost.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1928, author=Lawrence R. Bourne
  • , title=Well Tackled! , chapter=3 citation , passage=“They know our boats will stand up to their work,” said Willison, “and that counts for a good deal. A low estimate from us doesn't mean scamped work, but just that we want to keep the yard busy over a slack time.”}}

    Synonyms

    * estimation * appraisal

    Derived terms

    * ballpark estimate

    Verb

  • To calculate roughly, often from imperfect data.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1965, author=Ian Hacking, title=Logic of Statistical Inference, passage=I estimate that I need 400 board feet of lumber to complete a job, and then order 350 because I do not want a surplus, or perhaps order 450 because I do not want to make any subsequent orders.
  • citation
  • * '>citation
  • To judge and form an opinion of the value of, from imperfect data.
  • * John Locke
  • It is by the weight of silver, and not the name of the piece, that men estimate commodities and exchange them.
  • * J. C. Shairp
  • It is always very difficult to estimate the age in which you are living.

    Synonyms

    * appraise * guess

    Derived terms

    * estimable * underestimate * overestimate

    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