Other forms: approximated, approximating, approximates
Approximate means close to right but not exact. An approximate figure, approximate cost, approximately equal.
It signals that the number is good enough for the purpose and no better, which is honest rather than sloppy — an approximate answer given as exact is the real fault. As a verb, with the stress moved, to approximate means to come close to: the model approximates the real curve. Note approximation; and that the Latin behind it means to come near, from proximus, nearest.
1adjectiveapproximateClose to right but not exact.
“Can you give me an approximate price before you start the work?”
2verbcloseTo come close to something.
“The robot's movements approximate those of a real bird in flight.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
approximate is a quality of nearness.
Latin approximare is ad plus proximus, nearest. Proximity, proximate and the French prochain come from the same nearness.
Proto-Indo-European
*-kʷe
Latin
approximātus
Middle English
approximat
English, today
approximate
Built from
From Middle English approximat, from Latin approximātus. From Middle English approximat (“close, near (to); similar; intimate”), from Latin approximātus, the perfect passive participle of approximō (see -ate), further from ad- (“to, towards, at”) + proximō (“to come near”). The noun was derived from the adjective through substantivization, see -ate. See also proximate. by surface analysis, ap- + proximate.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA