extrapolate

English

WOTD – 22 October 2008

Etymology

From extra- +‎ (inter)polate.

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /ɛkˈstɹæp.əˌleɪt/, /ɪk-/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ekˈstɹæp.əˌlæɪt/

  • Audio (General Australian):

    (file)

• (Indic) IPA^(key): /ɪksˈʈrapɵleʈ/, /ˈɛksʈɾɑ.pɵˈleʈ/

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[athias] Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, Chicago, Ill.: Field Museum of Natural History, →ISBN, 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

• (antonym(s) of “mathematics”): interpolate

Derived terms

• extrapolatable
• extrapolation
• extrapolative
• extrapolator
• extrapolatory
• misextrapolate
• misextrapolation
• nonextrapolated
• overextrapolate
• unextrapolated

Translations

to infer by extending known information

Catalan: extrapolar (ca) Chinese: Mandarin: 外推 (zh) (wài tuī) Czech: extrapolovat Danish: ekstrapolere Finnish: yleistää (fi) French: extrapoler (fr) Galician: extrapolar (gl) German: extrapolieren (de), erschließen (de), hochrechnen (de) Hungarian: extrapolál (hu) Irish: eachtarshuigh Italian: estrapolare (it) Macedonian: екстраполира (ekstrapolira) Polish: ekstrapolować impf Portuguese: extrapolar (pt) Romanian: extrapola (ro) Russian: экстраполи́ровать (ru) impf or pf (ekstrapolírovatʹ) Serbo-Croatian: ekstrapolírati (sh) Spanish: extrapolar (es) Ukrainian: екстраполюва́ти (uk) impf or pf (ekstrapoljuváty)

to estimate the value of a variable outside a known range

Chinese: Mandarin: 外推 (zh) (wài tuī) Czech: extrapolovat Danish: ekstrapolere Finnish: ekstrapoloida (fi) French: extrapoler (fr) German: extrapolieren (de) Irish: eachtarshuigh Italian: estrapolare (it) Polish: ekstrapolować impf Portuguese: extrapolar (pt) Russian: экстраполи́ровать (ru) impf or pf (ekstrapolírovatʹ) Serbo-Croatian: ekstrapolírati (sh) Swedish: extrapolera (sv) Tagalog: iduklay Ukrainian: екстраполюва́ти (uk) impf or pf (ekstrapoljuváty)

See also

• expound (upon)

Spanish

Verb

extrapolate

1. second-person singular voseo imperative of extrapolar combined with te