as in calculation
the act or process of performing mathematical operations to find a value
he did a little number crunching and made an offer on the house
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Recent Examples of number crunching
In this case, instead of having equipment capable of all that processing power stored in massive warehouses, each satellite in orbit would do a small part of the number crunching and then beam the final results back to the ground.
—
Phil Plait, Scientific American, 6 Mar. 2026
Setting the odds for a game was more a matter of delicate intuition than wonkish number crunching.
—Dan Piepenbring, New Yorker, 4 Feb. 2026
Opponents said Antoni — who has spent most of his career at right-wing think tanks — lacked the expertise in statistical number crunching that's typical of previous BLS commissioners.
—Scott Horsley, NPR, 1 Oct. 2025
This will give decision makers essentially no choice but to deploy, and will give the fruits of your number crunching a chance to realize a business impact.
—Eric Siegel, Forbes.com, 8 Sep. 2025
Pretraining is where most of the number crunching happens, and what follows is usually fine-tuning, which refines the model for specific tasks.
—Dina Genkina, IEEE Spectrum, 4 June 2025
Phil Plait, Scientific American, 6 Mar. 2026
Setting the odds for a game was more a matter of delicate intuition than wonkish number crunching.
—Dan Piepenbring, New Yorker, 4 Feb. 2026
Opponents said Antoni — who has spent most of his career at right-wing think tanks — lacked the expertise in statistical number crunching that's typical of previous BLS commissioners.
—Scott Horsley, NPR, 1 Oct. 2025
This will give decision makers essentially no choice but to deploy, and will give the fruits of your number crunching a chance to realize a business impact.
—Eric Siegel, Forbes.com, 8 Sep. 2025
Pretraining is where most of the number crunching happens, and what follows is usually fine-tuning, which refines the model for specific tasks.
—Dina Genkina, IEEE Spectrum, 4 June 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for number crunching
Noun
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When adjusting the calculation for Texas’ median income, the annual cost drops to about $9,351, reflecting differences in earnings between Texas and the national average.—
Tiffani Jackson,
Fort Worth Star-Telegram,
6 Mar. 2026
-
This reduced the problem to a finite number of calculations — at least in theory.—
Quanta Magazine,
Quanta Magazine,
6 Mar. 2026
Noun
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Clifton, New Jersey — At Clifton High School in Clifton, New Jersey, senior Gianna Colon is a three-sport athlete, sophomore Sebastian Fazio loves math and baseball, and sophomore Hamza Ramach is in band and is a goalie on the school hockey team.—
Meg Oliver,
CBS News,
12 Mar. 2026
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Drones cost a fraction of the weapons needed to shoot them down, a math problem that has vexed military planners for years.—
Chris Boccia,
ABC News,
12 Mar. 2026
Noun
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What sounds like bad arithmetic is correct politics.—
Josef Joffe,
The Atlantic,
14 Feb. 2026
-
No self-pity in those four words, no performance of stoicism either—just the clean arithmetic of a life lived at full speed.—
Outside,
Outside,
10 Feb. 2026
Noun
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Spotify claims those who aren’t household names can earn six figures, with more than 1,500 artists earning $1 million last year.—
Cerys Davies,
Los Angeles Times,
11 Mar. 2026
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Pay a little more, and kids can sign up for craft sessions to make dream catchers or paint ceramic Boholano figures.—
Condé Nast,
Condé Nast Traveler,
10 Mar. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Number crunching.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/number%20crunching. Accessed 13 Mar. 2026.
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