compute

Formscomputes, computing, computed

1. 1
   verbtransitive

   To work out a value or result through calculation or reckoning.

   Engineers compute the load each beam can bear before construction begins.

   The software computes shipping fees based on weight and distance.

   Similarcalculate, determine, reckon

   Note

   Latin computō, built on putō with the prefix com-, gives English this reckoning verb. It takes a plain object (compute the square root) or a that-clause reporting a result: Clarence Green and James Lambert (2018) write that Coxhead computed that a word list covered about 10% of a corpus. Milton's Paradise Lost (1667) uses it for reckoning days, a reminder that computing was human work long before machines.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   The processing power of computer systems, treated as a resource that can be allocated and consumed.

   Cloud providers sell compute by the hour, charging for every processor cycle used.

   The research team ran out of compute halfway through the simulation.

   Note

   Industry jargon turns the reckoning verb into a mass noun, so it takes amount and enough rather than a plural: the amount of compute, not enough compute. It is usually paired with memory and storage or set against them. Prashila Naik's Hands-on Cloud Analytics with Microsoft Azure Stack (2020) notes that compute is decoupled from storage and can be scaled up. Outside technical writing, "processing power" is clearer.

3. 3
   verbcolloquialintransitive

   To make sense or be logical, most often used in the negative and in playful imitation of a robot's flat, mechanical voice.

   That story doesn't compute. The timeline makes no sense at all.

   He stared at the contradiction, muttering that it did not compute.

   Note

   Here a machine's word is turned on ideas: whatever fails to fit is said not to compute, the way a calculating device rejects input it cannot handle. The phrase is often clipped to does not compute with no subject at all. Guitarist Chris Stein, quoted in The Canberra Times (1977), used it that way to fend off "What is punk rock?" with robot noises. Keep it for jokes; in earnest writing, "does not make sense" is safer.

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