- estimate
- estimate vb1 Estimate, appraise, evaluate, value, rate, assess, assay are comparable when meaning to judge a thing with respect to its worth.Estimate usually implies a personal and sometimes a reasoned judgment which, whether considered or casual, is by the nature of the case neither thoroughly objective nor definitive{
we have first to estimate their effects upon complicated social conditions (largely a matter of guesswork)— Dewey
}{small and manageable numbers of birds must be counted precisely; huge flocks can only be estimated— Time
}{to estimate the Frenchwoman's moral nature with any approach to adequacy it is necessary ... to avoid viewing her from an Anglo-Saxon standpoint— Brownell
}Appraise implies the intent to fix definitely and in the capacity of an expert the monetary worth of the thing in question usually in terms of the price it ought to bring in the market if sold, or in case of its loss (as by fire or theft) the monetary compensation due its owner from an insuring company{appraise the decedent's real estate
}{appraise a fire loss
}In extended use appraise, in contrast to estimate, implies an intent to give a final, an accurate, or an expert judgment of a thing's worth; estimate, therefore, is often preferred by persons speaking of their own judgments because appraise seems presumptuous or pretentious{it is not my business to appraise. Appraisements imply censures and it is not one writer's business to censure others— F. M. Ford
}{this difficulty of appraising literature absolutely inheres in your study of it from the beginning— Quiller— Couch
}The participial adjective appraising is often used to qualify eye, glance, look; it then suggests close, critical inspection or scrutiny{addressing him with a watchful appraising stare of his prominent black eyes— Conrad
}{the monumental and encyclopedic critic is to be regarded with a carefully appraising eye— T. S. Eliot
}Evaluate, like appraise, suggests an intent to arrive at a mathematically correct judgment; it seldom suggests, however, an attempt to determine a thing's monetary worth, but rather to find its equivalent in other and more familiar terms{a teacher evaluates a student's work by marks in numbers or in letters
}{many persons find it impossible to evaluate a work of art except in terms of morals
}{Conventional ethical codes are assumed to be invalid or at least impractical for evaluating life as it is— Walcutt
}Value (see also APPRECIATE 2) comes very close to appraise in that it also implies an intent to determine or fix the market price but differs from appraise in that it carries no implication of an authoritative or expert judgment and must depend on the context to make that point if it is essential{the appraiser valued at $ 10,000 condemned property which had already been valued by the owner at $15,000 and by the city at $8000
}{experts were called in to appraise the gems which the alleged smuggler had valued at $1000
}In extended use and in reference to things not marketable, value is often found with a negative or with a restrictive word such as only{he values success only as a stepping-stone
}{who values his own honor not a straw— Browning
}{valued himself on his tolerance of heresy in great thinkers— Frost
}Rate often adds to estimate the implication of fixing in a scale of values{rate one profession above another in usefulness
}{rate one person's qualifications as superior to another's
}{we English are capable of rating him far more correctly if we knew him better— Arnold
}Assess implies valuing for the sake of determining the tax to be levied; in extended use it implies a determining of the exact value or extent of a thing prior to judging it or to using it as the ground for a decision{the task of defining that influence or of exactly assessing its amount is one of extraordinary difficulty— Huxley
}{striving to assess the many elements upon which Rome's future depended— Buchan
}Assay basically implies chemical analysis for the sake of determining a substance's (usually a metal's) quality, quantity, or value; in extended use it implies a critical analysis for the sake of measuring, weighing, and appraising{to assay . . . changes which the great reformers within and without the Catholic Church accomplished— Randall
}Analogous words: *judge, adjudge, adjudicate: determine, *discover, ascertain: settle, *decide, determine2 reckon, Calculate, computeestimate n *estimationAnalogous words: valuation, evaluation, appraisal, assessment (see corresponding verbs at ESTIMATE): cost, expense, *price
New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.
