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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The city also hasn’t released a calculation of how many new units would be required if SB 79 ends up affecting 52 bus stops instead of four.—
David Garrick,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
9 May 2026
-
The broader geopolitical calculation remains clear.—
Yinka Adegoke,
semafor.com,
8 May 2026
Noun
-
Less than half can read, write or do math at grade level.—
Jemma Stephenson,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
8 May 2026
-
How to decide The lifestyle question often matters as much as the math.—
Lauren Jarvis-Gibson,
Fort Worth Star-Telegram,
7 May 2026
Noun
-
Extrapolate those trend lines, and the arithmetic becomes alarming.—
Big Think,
Big Think,
4 May 2026
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Just a few years after the arrival of ZF, Kurt Gödel showed that no axiomatic system capable of basic arithmetic can be used to prove its own consistency.—
Quanta Magazine,
Quanta Magazine,
29 Apr. 2026
Noun
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On-pitch leadership from figures like James, Colwill and Fernandez will also help.—
Cerys Jones,
New York Times,
13 May 2026
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Task force member and history professor Bob Weinberg pushed back, saying reassessing historical figures is part of the academic process.—
Stepheny Price,
FOXNews.com,
12 May 2026
Cite this Entry
“Number crunching.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/number%20crunching. Accessed 14 May. 2026.
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