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
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
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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These calculations are computationally intensive and only recently became feasible.—
Neetika Walter,
Interesting Engineering,
21 Feb. 2026
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Florida Blue gave me some crazy calculation about meeting out-of-pocket deductibles.—
Sun Sentinel Editorial Board,
Sun Sentinel,
20 Feb. 2026
Noun
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Alabama, meanwhile, has done the same vis-à-vis math skills, beginning with screening students to spot those in danger of failing, as EdSource notes.—
Dan Walters,
Oc Register,
26 Feb. 2026
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Still, during the 2024 interview, Thiel argued that even in STEM fields currently untouched by AI automation, using math skills as a bar to entry will fall out of fashion thanks to AI.—
Jake Angelo,
Fortune,
26 Feb. 2026
Noun
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What sounds like bad arithmetic is correct politics.—
Josef Joffe,
The Atlantic,
14 Feb. 2026
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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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Guard against miscommunications with authority figures.—
Georgia Nicols,
Denver Post,
25 Feb. 2026
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Government officials say more than 2,000 detainees have been released under precautionary measures and at least 177 prisoners have received full amnesty benefits, according to figures provided by ruling party lawmaker Jorge Arreaza, who heads the parliamentary commission overseeing compliance.—
Antonio María Delgado,
Miami Herald,
24 Feb. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Number crunching.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/number%20crunching. Accessed 28 Feb. 2026.
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