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Mathematics vocabulary · Word Problems

Work out

Meaning in mathematics, with examples

phrasal verbCore term

In mathematics, work out means: To calculate an answer or find the solution to a problem by thinking about it carefully; especially common in British classrooms and exam papers.

In Turkish: hesaplamak, bulmak, çözmek

How it is used

Exam instructions say 'Work out the value of x' or 'Work out the area'. In speech: 'Can you work it out?', 'I can't work out where I went wrong'. American English often uses 'figure out' for this. A 'worked example' is an example with a full solution.

Example sentences

  1. Work out the total cost of 15 tickets at £8.50 each.

  2. I worked out the answer, but I made a mistake in the last step.

Common collocations

  • work out the answer
  • work out the value of
  • work it out
  • worked example
  • word problemA maths question written as a short story or real-life situation, which you must turn into numbers or equations before solving it.
  • estimateTo find an approximate value quickly, usually by rounding the numbers first, so that you can check whether an exact answer is reasonable.
  • solveTo find the value or values of an unknown that make an equation or inequality true, or to find the answer to a problem.
  • rateA ratio that compares two quantities measured in different units, such as kilometres per hour or litres per minute.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Word Problems

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