extrapolate

verb

ex·trap·o·late ik-ˈstra-pə-ˌlāt

extrapolated; extrapolating

transitive verb

: to predict by projecting past experience or known data

extrapolate public sentiment on one issue from known public reaction on others

: to project, extend, or expand (known data or experience) into an area not known or experienced so as to arrive at a usually conjectural knowledge of the unknown area

extrapolates present trends to construct an image of the future

: to infer (values of a variable in an unobserved interval) from values within an already observed interval

intransitive verb

: to perform the act or process of extrapolating

extrapolation

ik-ˌstra-pə-ˈlā-shən

noun

extrapolative

ik-ˈstra-pə-ˌlā-tiv

adjective

extrapolator

ik-ˈstra-pə-ˌlā-tər

noun

Did you know?

The Many Uses of Extrapolate

Scientists worry about the greenhouse effect because they have extrapolated the rate of carbon-dioxide buildup and predicted that its effect on the atmosphere will become increasingly severe. On the basis of their extrapolations, they have urged governments and businesses to limit factory and automobile emissions. Notice that it's acceptable to speak of extrapolating existing data (to produce new data), extrapolating from existing data (to produce new data), or extrapolating new data (from existing data)—in other words, it isn't easy to use this word wrong.

Example Sentences

We can extrapolate the number of new students entering next year by looking at how many entered in previous years. With such a small study it is impossible to extrapolate accurately.

Recent Examples on the Web Investors should be careful not to over-extrapolate these results and temper their expectations for a premature pivot from the Fed. —

Hannah Miao, WSJ, 13 Dec. 2022 Weather radar and some modern apps can help extrapolate such information, but guess what? —

Marshall Shepherd, Forbes, 11 Nov. 2022 The story left readers to extrapolate their own conclusions about why this was so from the short, haunting observations of the room’s soft-spoken proprietor, Steven J. Orfield, of Orfield Laboratories. —

Caity Weaver, New York Times, 23 Nov. 2022 By measuring the murkiness, Schwartzman could extrapolate the number of microbes in the flask and construct a growth curve to estimate how rapidly the cells were dividing. —

Carrie Arnold, Quanta Magazine, 2 Nov. 2022 Sound leaves no trace in the fossil record, however, so researchers seeking to understand the evolutionary origins of vocalizations have to extrapolate backward using data from current species. —

Rachel Nuwer, Scientific American, 25 Oct. 2022 Pollsters can only extrapolate the turnout rates of previous years. —

Steven Tian, Fortune, 16 Nov. 2022 Markets reacted so strongly both because too many people expected higher inflation, and because many investors took the numbers as a reason to extrapolate to a future of declining inflation. —

James Mackintosh, WSJ, 16 Nov. 2022 For this research, the agency uses special intensive audits to look for noncompliance and then extrapolate. —

Richard Rubin, WSJ, 28 Oct. 2022 See More

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'extrapolate.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.