What does extrapolate mean?
Word: Extrapolate
Part of Speech: Verb
Meaning: Extrapolate means to use facts you already have to reach a judgement about something you do not yet know.
How do you spell extrapolate?
Syllables: ex - trap - o - late
Tricky part: The danger is the vowel after the r. It is said so weakly that many write extro, perhaps thinking of extrovert. The spelling opens with extra instead.
Watch out for: extropolate, extrapollate
Memory tip: You are going that little bit extra, beyond the facts, so begin with the word extra as it is in extra time.
Extrapolate in a sentence
Example 1: From the first three results, Kavya extrapolated how the whole class might score.
Example 2: You cannot safely extrapolate from one hot week to a whole summer.
Example 3: Economists extrapolate future trends from past figures.
Fun Fact
It was formed in the late 1800s, modelled on an older verb for filling in values between known points. This one reaches beyond them.
Practise the CREST Way
Word Cookie
Insert the correct pair of letters to complete the word:
extrap_l_te
a) o, e
b) u, a
c) o, a
d) a, a
Show answer
c) o, a. Think of pole for the vowel in the middle, and close the word the way create does.
Mingle-Mangle
Unjumble the word in the sentence and choose it:
The students tried to ettloexraap the number of tigers in the state from the count in one reserve.
a) exaggerate
b) extrapolate
c) extricate
d) elaborate
Show answer
b) extrapolate. It must use an l and a p, and only one option has both.
Word Connection
Choose the synonym of the word extrapolate as used in the sentence:
From twenty years of rainfall data, the scientists could extrapolate next year's pattern.
a) publish
b) infer
c) conceal
d) measure
Show answer
b) infer. The scientists are working out something new from what they have.
Spell-o-Spell
Three of these words are spelt correctly and one is not. Choose the meaning of the misspelt word:
1. hypothisis 2. extrapolate 3. approximate 4. statistics
a) facts shown in the form of numbers
b) to work out what lies beyond known data
c) to come close to an exact amount
d) an idea offered to be tested by experiment
Show answer
d) an idea offered to be tested by experiment. Hypothesis has e after the th.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. A shop sold 100 pens each week for a month. What would someone extrapolating say?
a) Sales next month may reach about 400.
b) Last month's receipts must be checked.
c) Those pens were priced too high.
d) This shop has many kinds of pens.
Show answer
a) Sales next month may reach about 400.
2. What is the main risk of extrapolating from one small survey?
a) the survey may take too many weeks
b) the survey form may cost too much
c) the pattern may not hold more widely
d) the answers may be hard to read
Show answer
c) the pattern may not hold more widely
