extrapolate

WOTD - 22 October 2008    

English

Etymology

From extra + (inter)polate

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA: /ɛkˈstræp.ə.leɪt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Verb

extrapolate (third-person singular simple present extrapolates, present participle extrapolating, simple past and past participle extrapolated)

1. (transitive) To infer by extending known information.
   • 1992, Rudolf M. Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, page vii

     With fresh material, taxonomic conclusions are leavened by recognition that the material examined reflects the site it occupied; a herbarium packet gives one only a small fraction of the data desirable for sound conclusions. Herbarium material does not, indeed, allow one to extrapolate safely: what you see is what you get […]

2. (transitive, mathematics) To estimate the value of a variable outside a known range from values within that range by assuming that the estimated value follows logically from the known ones

Antonyms

• (mathematics): interpolate

Related terms

• extrapolation
• extrapolator
• extrapolative

Translations

to infer by extending known information

Catalan: extrapolar (ca) Croatian: ekstrapolírati (hr) Czech: extrapolovat (cs) Finnish: yleistää (fi)

French: extrapoler (fr) Hungarian: extrapolál (hu) Italian: estrapolare (it) Russian: экстраполи́ровать (ru) (ekstrapolírovat') impf./pf. Spanish: extrapolar (es)

to estimate the value of a variable outside a known range

Croatian: ekstrapolírati (hr) Czech: extrapolovat (cs) Finnish: ekstrapoloida (fi) French: extrapoler (fr)

German: extrapolieren Italian: estrapolare (it) Russian: экстраполи́ровать (ru) (ekstrapolírovat') impf./pf. Swedish: extrapolera (sv)