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Vague vs Approximate - What's the difference?

vague | approximate | Related terms |

Vague is a related term of approximate.


As verbs the difference between vague and approximate

is that vague is while approximate is to carry or advance near; to cause to approach.

As an adjective approximate is

approaching; proximate; nearly resembling.

vague

English

Adjective

(er)
  • Not clearly expressed; stated in indefinite terms.
  • *
  • *2004: , Character: Profiles in Presidential Courage
  • *:Throughout the first week of his presidency, Dulles and Bissell continued to brief Kennedy on their strategy for Cuba, but the men were vague and their meetings offered little in the way of hard facts.
  • Not having a precise meaning.
  • :
  • Not clearly defined, grasped, or understood; indistinct; slight.
  • :
  • Not clearly felt or sensed; somewhat subconscious.
  • :
  • Not thinking or expressing one’s thoughts clearly or precisely.
  • Lacking expression; vacant.
  • Not sharply outlined; hazy.
  • *{{quote-book, year=1922, author=(Michael Arlen), title= “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days, chapter=Ep./1/2
  • , passage=He walked. To the corner of Hamilton Place and Picadilly, and there stayed for a while, for it is a romantic station by night. The vague and careless rain looked like threads of gossamer silver passing across the light of the arc-lamps.}}
  • Wandering; vagrant; vagabond.
  • *Sir (c.1564-1627)
  • *:to set upon the vague villains
  • *(John Keats) (1795-1821)
  • *:She danced along with vague , regardless eyes.
  • Synonyms

    * obscure * ambiguous

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (obsolete) A wandering; a vagary.
  • (Holinshed)
  • An indefinite expanse.
  • * Lowell
  • The gray vague of unsympathizing sea.

    Verb

    (vagu)
  • To wander; to roam; to stray.
  • * Holland
  • [The soul] doth vague and wander.

    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