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accurate

adjective
AK-yuh-rit/ˈæk.jə.ɹɪt/UKAK-yuu-rit/ˈak.jʊ.ɹɪt/

2 meanings of accurate

Practice

  1. 1
    correctadjective
    Correct and free from error, or close enough to the true value to stay within acceptable limits.

    The witness gave an accurate account of the accident.

    Scientists rely on accurate measurements to test their theories.

    UsageThings are accurate to a limit: accurate to the nearest gram, accurate to within a meter.

    Note

    The everyday sense marks a shift from effort to result. English borrowed accurate in the 1610s from Latin accūrātus, "done with care," built on cūrō, "take care." By the 1650s it meant "precise, exact." Today it praises what an account, an instrument or a body of knowledge delivers, as in an accurate calculator or accurate measurements. It says nothing about how hard anyone tried.

    Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 4 facts

    • English borrowed accurate from Latin, with its first attestation in the 1610s. en.wiktionary.org
    • Latin accūrātus means done or prepared with care. en.wiktionary.org
    • The Latin formation ultimately includes cūrō, meaning take care. en.wiktionary.org
    • The historical senses developed from care in execution to exactness or correctness, with the latter established by the 1650s. en.wiktionary.org
  2. 2
    precisely fixedadjectiveobsolete
    Exactly determined, or carried out with close care and attention.
    for that is the fume of those, that conceive the celestial bodies have more accurate influences upon these things below, than indeed they have
    1625, Bacon, Of the Vicissitude of Things
    Note

    Here accuracy means exactness or the care behind the work, not a true result. Bacon, in Of Vicissitude of Things (1625), writes of people who think the celestial bodies "have more accurate influences upon these things below" than they really do, meaning influences precisely fixed. In older prose, read it as "careful" or "exactly ordered." In new writing it would simply be taken as the "correct" meaning.

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Origin

First recorded in the 1610s with the now obsolete sense "done with care," and from the 1650s meaning "precise, exact." It was borrowed from Latin accūrātus ("done with care"), the perfect passive participle of accūrō ("take care of"), formed from ad- ("to, towards") plus cūrō ("take care"), from cūra ("care"); compare English cure.

Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 9 facts