calibrate

English

Etymology

From caliber or calibre +‎ -ate.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkæl.ɪ.bɹeɪt/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkæl.ə.bɹeɪt/
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˈkæl.ə.bɹæɪt/
• Rhymes: -eɪt

Verb

calibrate (third-person singular simple present calibrates, present participle calibrating, simple past and past participle calibrated)

1. To check or adjust by comparison with a standard.
   • 2024 September 7, David Hytner, “Rice and Grealish start new England era with Nations League victory in Ireland”, in The Guardian‎^[1]:

     Trent Alexander-Arnold was prominent in the early running, stepping up from right-back into midfield, calibrating his passing range. He had already teed up Harry Kane for a free header – the captain headed high – when he sent Anthony Gordon clean through.

2. To mark the scale of a measuring instrument.
3. To measure the caliber of a tube or gun.

Synonyms

• (check or adjust by comparison with a standard): tune

Derived terms

• autocalibrating
• calibratable
• calibrator
• decalibrate
• intercalibrate
• miscalibrate
• recalibrate

 

Related terms

• caliber/calibre
• calibration

Translations

to check or adjust by comparison with a standard

• Bulgarian: калибрирам (kalibriram)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 校準／校准 (zh) (jiàozhǔn)

• Czech: kalibrovat
• Esperanto: kalibri
• Finnish: kalibroida (fi)
• French: étalonner (fr), calibrer (fr)
• German: kalibrieren (de)
• Greek: βαθμονομώ (el) (vathmonomó), διαβαθμίζω (el) (diavathmízo)
• Hebrew: כייל (kiyél)
• Italian: calibrare (it)
• Japanese: 調整する (ja) (ちょうせいする, chōsei suru), 較正する (ja) (こうせいする, kōsei suru)
• Maori: tohu ine
• Polish: kalibrować
• Portuguese: calibrar (pt)
• Russian: калибри́ровать (ru) (kalibrírovatʹ)
• Spanish: calibrar (es)
• Swedish: kalibrera (sv)
• Ukrainian: калібрува́ти (uk) impf (kalibruváty), відкалібро́вувати impf (vidkalibróvuvaty) (rare), відкалібрува́ти pf (vidkalibruváty)

To mark the scale of a measuring instrument

• Bulgarian: градуирам (bg) (graduiram)
• Dutch: kalibreer (nl)

Further reading

• “calibrate”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “calibrate”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• bacterial

Italian

Etymology 1

Verb

calibrate

1. inflection of calibrare:
   1. second-person plural present indicative
   2. second-person plural imperative

Etymology 2

Participle

calibrate f pl

1. feminine plural of calibrato

Spanish

Verb

calibrate

1. second-person singular voseo imperative of calibrar combined with te