Skip to main content
PlainSpell

approximate

/əˈpɹɑk.sə.mət/adjective, noun, verb

approximate is spelled A-P-P-R-O-X-I-M-A-T-E. The wrong spelling people search most is aproximate: about 80 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 17 of all searches for the word. Approximate is an adjective meaning “Approaching; proximate; nearly resembling”.

How many letters and syllables are in approximate?

Letters11: A-P-P-R-O-X-I-M-A-T-E
Syllables4 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing4.4 times per million words; the 12,216th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searched1; the most searched, aproximate, about 80 Bing searches a month (all of them)
Rhymes with

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How do you spell approximate?

Approximate is spelled A-P-P-R-O-X-I-M-A-T-E. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 17 of the searches for approximate in either form.

approximatethe right spelling1,240 searches a month
aproximatea missing p80 searches a month

Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.

How common is approximate?

Approximate appears 4.4 times per million words in written English, the 12,216th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce approximate?

  • UK /əˈpɹɒk.sɪ.mət/
  • US /əˈpɹɑk.sə.mət/
  • US /əˈpɹɑk.sɪ.mət/

As a verb (“To estimate”): /əˈpɹɒk.sɪ.meɪt/, /əˈpɹɑk.sə.meɪt/.

Approximate has 4 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-approximate-adj.ogg, En-us-approximate-verb.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with approximate?

One word on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as approximate from its last stressed vowel (/ɑksəmət/):

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of approximate

  • more approximate comparative
  • most approximate superlative
  • approx.
  • approximates plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • approximating participle, present
  • approximated participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does approximate mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

adjective

  1. 1

    Approaching; proximate; nearly resembling.

  2. 2

    Nearing correctness; nearly exact; not perfectly accurate.

    approximate results or values

  3. 3

    Drawn close together, but not united.

verb

  1. 1

    To estimate.

    I approximated the value of pi by taking 22 divided by 7.

  2. 2

    To come near to; to approach.

  3. 3

    To carry or advance near; to cause to approach.

noun

  1. 1

    rareAn approximate result or quantity.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you abbreviate approximate?

Wiktionary records one abbreviation of approximate: approx..

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Approximate in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchapproximant (approaching; proximate; nearly resembling), approximatif (near correctness; nearly exact; not perfectly…), approximer (to carry or advance near; to cause to approach)
Germanannähernd, ungefähr, zirka, circa (approaching; proximate; nearly resembling), annähern (to carry or advance near; to cause to approach), annähernd erreichen (to come near to; to approach)
Portugueseaproximado (approaching; proximate; nearly resembling), aproximar (to carry or advance near; to cause to approach), aproximar-se (to come near to; to approach)
Spanishaproximado (approaching; proximate; nearly resembling), acercar, juntar, estrechar (to carry or advance near; to cause to approach), acercarse, aproximarse (to come near to; to approach)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does approximate come from?

From Middle English approximat(e) (“close, near (to); similar; intimate”, also used as the past participle of approximaten), from Latin approximātus, the perfect passive participle of approximō (see -ate (adjective-forming suffix)), further from ad- (“to, towards, at”) + proximō (“to come near”). The noun was derived from the adjective through substantivization, see -ate (noun-forming suffix).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after approximate