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# imprecise

«imprecise» in Mova's school dictionary: **Not exact or accurate; rough or vague** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

### part of speech

adjective (imprecise, more imprecise); noun «imprecision»

### meaning for a pupil

1) Not exact or accurate; rough or vague. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/I/imprecise/#m1)

2) Not clearly expressed: imprecise instructions. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/I/imprecise/#m2)

### sense in the lessons

In maths and science, an imprecise measurement is not exact enough (measuring a pencil with steps, not a ruler). Estimates are imprecise on purpose. In writing, imprecise instructions confuse the reader. Phrases: imprecise measurement, imprecise language, rather imprecise.

### examples

- Measuring with your hand span is imprecise. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/I/imprecise/#x1)
- «About a hundred» is an imprecise answer; the exact answer is 97. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/I/imprecise/#x2)
- The instructions were imprecise, so we built the model wrong. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/I/imprecise/#x3)
- Old maps were imprecise about the size of countries. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/I/imprecise/#x4)
- Use a ruler; guessing is too imprecise. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/I/imprecise/#x5)
- His description of the thief was imprecise. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/I/imprecise/#x6)

### note

Opposite: «precise». In maths, precise means exact detail (3.14159) and accurate means close to the true value; an imprecise answer can still be roughly right (π ≈ 3). Estimates and rounding make numbers deliberately imprecise.

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «imprecise» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/I/imprecise/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.