round off
verb
Simple meaning
To change to an approximation having fewer significant digits.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
rowndawfSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈɹaʊnˈdɔf
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
verb
mathematicstransitiveintransitive
To change (a number) to an approximation having fewer significant digits.
transitive
To change the shape of (an object) to make it smoother and especially more circular or ovoid.
transitive
To complete or finish something.
Make round
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: To change (a number) to an approximation having fewer significant digits.
Used this way, round off is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a mathematical use: it is defined precisely and belongs to working with figures and calculations rather than to ordinary conversation.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Clinical and technical
- Usage feel
- Technical and specialized
Where it naturally appears
- Mathematics
- Geometry
- Academic writing
- Education/classroom
Usage note
In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.