How to Use back-of-the-envelope in a Sentence

back-of-the-envelope

adjective

• The back-of-the-envelope math all pointed to catastrophe.
  — Arkansas Online, 19 Mar. 2026
• Just back-of-the-envelope energy math.
  — Marisa McMillan, Outside, 7 Oct. 2025
• Both memoirs prepare the lay gambler for a world of gruelling, bruising defeats and unglamorous back-of-the-envelope calculus.
  — Dan Piepenbring, New Yorker, 4 Feb. 2026
• Even simple back-of-the-envelope and spreadsheet models, using historical hourly data, tell a more consistent story.
  — Alex Pavlak, Baltimore Sun, 1 Feb. 2026
• Our back-of-the-envelope calculations suggest that Intel has left a lot of value locked behind its conglomerate structure.
  — Charlene Barshefsky, Fortune, 19 Sep. 2025
• Skromeda said that some local producers had done back-of-the-envelope math, and figured that Manitoba would still come out on top due to the currency exchange rate.
  — Gene Maddaus, Variety, 24 Sep. 2026
• By my back-of-the-envelope calculation, under this system the overall federal rate on a taxable income of $1 million would come to a rate of about 29%.
  — Business Columnist, Los Angeles Times, 6 May 2026
• So a back-of-the-envelope calculation would put $2,000 stimulus checks at a total cost of about $326 billion.
  — David Goldman, CNN Money, 10 Nov. 2025
• But Erica York, a tax policy expert at the Tax Foundation, attempted some back-of-the-envelope calculations.
  — Jason Ma, Fortune, 9 Nov. 2025
• Antony Karabus, a longtime strategic adviser to retailers, gave a back-of-the-envelope accounting of how the costs of all the retail must-haves have changed since 2017 or 2018.
  — Evan Clark, Footwear News, 10 Oct. 2025
• Caveating that many basic questions remain unanswered, a back-of-the-envelope calculation shows a clear trade-off between immediate monthly affordability and long-term debt accumulation.
  — Preston Fore, Fortune, 12 Nov. 2025