figure out
[verb]
Synonyms:
- calculate, compute, reckon, work out
- understand, comprehend, decipher, fathom, make out, see

---

Contrasted words: obfuscate, obscure, conceal, hide, screen
Related Words: disentangle, unscramble, untangle, crack, decode

---

English Thesaurus: calculate, work out, figure out, count, total, ...

[TahlilGaran] English Synonym Dictionary ▲

figure somebody/something ↔ out phrasal verb (see also figure)

1. to think about a problem or situation until you find the answer or understand what has happened Synonym : work out
figure out how/what/why etc
Can you figure out how to do it?
If I have a map, I can figure it out.
Don’t worry, we’ll figure something out (=find a way to solve the problem).

2. to understand why someone behaves in the way they do Synonym : work out:
Women. I just can’t figure them out.

[TahlilGaran] Dictionary of Contemporary English ▲

calculate formal to find out an amount, price, or value by adding numbers together:
The students calculated the cost of printing 5000 copies of their book.
work out to calculate something. Work out is less formal than calculate, and is more common in everyday English:
You need to work out how much you will need to borrow.
figure out (also figure American English) informal to calculate an amount:
We still haven't figured out how much it's all going to cost.
the method for figuring welfare payments
count to find out the total number of things or people in a group by looking at each one and adding them all together:
The teacher counted the children as they got on the bus.
total (also total up) to add a number of things together to get a final number:
Once the scores have been totaled, we will announce the winner.
Okay, now let's total up who had the most points.
quantify formal to say how much something costs, how much of it there is, how serious or effective it is etc:
I think it's difficult to quantify the cost at the moment, for a variety of reasons.
How do you quantify the benefits of the treatment?
a reliable method for quantifying the amount of calcium in the blood
assess formal to calculate what the value or cost of something is, or decide how good, bad etc something is:
The value of the paintings was assessed at $20 million.
They are still assessing the damage.
We need to have a better way of assessing students' progress.
estimate to guess an amount, price, or number as exactly as you can, based on the knowledge you have:
The police department estimates that the number of violent crimes will decrease by 2%.
put a figure on something to say what you think the exact total amount or value of something is, especially when it is a lot:
It's hard to put a figure on it, but the final cost is likely to be over £225 million.
The company has refused to put a figure on its losses.
project to calculate what an amount will be in the future, using the information you have now:
The company projects sales of $4 million this year.
a rough count (=not exact)
I made a rough count of the houses in the street.
a quick count
According to my quick count, there were 15.
a head count (=of how many people are present)
Make sure you do a head count before the children get back on the bus.
a word/page count (=of how many words or pages there are)
Your computer can do an automatic word count.
a traffic count (=of how many vehicles pass through a place)
We went to the main road at 9 am to begin our traffic count.
do/make a count
I looked at the report and did a quick page count.

[TahlilGaran] English Thesaurus ▲

calculate formal to find out an amount, price, or value by adding numbers together:
The students calculated the cost of printing 5000 copies of their book.
work out to calculate something. Work out is less formal than calculate, and is more common in everyday English:
You need to work out how much you will need to borrow.
figure out (also figure American English) informal to calculate an amount:
We still haven't figured out how much it's all going to cost.
the method for figuring welfare payments
count to find out the total number of things or people in a group by looking at each one and adding them all together:
The teacher counted the children as they got on the bus.
total (also total up) to add a number of things together to get a final number:
Once the scores have been totaled, we will announce the winner.
Okay, now let's total up who had the most points.
quantify formal to say how much something costs, how much of it there is, how serious or effective it is etc:
I think it's difficult to quantify the cost at the moment, for a variety of reasons.
How do you quantify the benefits of the treatment?
a reliable method for quantifying the amount of calcium in the blood
assess formal to calculate what the value or cost of something is, or decide how good, bad etc something is:
The value of the paintings was assessed at $20 million.
They are still assessing the damage.
We need to have a better way of assessing students' progress.
estimate to guess an amount, price, or number as exactly as you can, based on the knowledge you have:
The police department estimates that the number of violent crimes will decrease by 2%.
put a figure on something to say what you think the exact total amount or value of something is, especially when it is a lot:
It's hard to put a figure on it, but the final cost is likely to be over £225 million.
The company has refused to put a figure on its losses.
project to calculate what an amount will be in the future, using the information you have now:
The company projects sales of $4 million this year.
add to put two or more numbers together to find the total:
If you add 7 and 5, you get 12.
subtract/take away to reduce one number by another number. take something away sounds more informal than subtract:
If you subtract 12 from 15, you get 3.
multiply to add a number to itself a particular number of times:
4 multiplied by 10 is 40.
divide to calculate how many times one number contains another number:
10 divided by 2 equals 5.

[TahlilGaran] English Thesaurus ▲

figure out
figure (someone) out
to understand why someone behaves the way they do.
I've never been able to figure her out.

Could anyone ever figure out my parents?

figure out (something)
to understand something by thinking about it.
After I figured out that I would earn only eighty cents an hour, I said forget it.

She spent an hour trying to install the software, but John finally figured it out.

Related vocabulary: puzzle out something

[TahlilGaran] English Idioms Dictionary ▲

figure out something
figure out (something)
to understand something by thinking about it.
After I figured out that I would earn only eighty cents an hour, I said forget it.

She spent an hour trying to install the software, but John finally figured it out.

Related vocabulary: puzzle out something

[TahlilGaran] English Idioms Dictionary ▲

figure out
• figure out (someone or something)
to try to understand someone or something, to solve something; to find an answer by thinking about something
I finally figured out how to use the new DVD recorder.

Everyone is trying to figure out what our boss is going to do with the new equipment.

[TahlilGaran] English Idioms Dictionary ▲

figure out something
• figure out (someone or something)
to try to understand someone or something, to solve something; to find an answer by thinking about something
I finally figured out how to use the new DVD recorder.

Everyone is trying to figure out what our boss is going to do with the new equipment.

[TahlilGaran] English Idioms Dictionary ▲

figure out
v.
1. To find an answer by thinking about (some problem or difficulty); solve.
Tom couldn't figure out the last problem on the arithmetic test.
Sam couldn't figure out how to print a program until the teacher showed him how.
Mary couldn't figure out why her cake tasted so funny until she found salt mixed in the sugar bag.
Compare: FIND OUT¹.
2. To learn how to explain; understand.
Laurence is an odd boy; I can't figure him out.
Compare: MAKE OUT².

[TahlilGaran] English Idioms Dictionary ▲