abacus

[ ab-uh-kuhs, uh-bak-uhs ]

/ ˈæb ə kəs, əˈbæk əs /

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See synonyms for abacus on Thesaurus.com

noun, plural ab·a·cus·es, ab·a·ci

[ab-uh-sahy, -kahy, uh-bak-ahy]. /ˈæb əˌsaɪ, -ˌkaɪ, əˈbæk aɪ/.

a device for making arithmetic calculations, consisting of a frame set with rods on which balls or beads are moved.

Architecture. a slab forming the top of the capital of a column.

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Origin of abacus

1350–1400; Middle English <Latin: board, counting board, re-formed <Greek ábax

Words nearby abacus

aback, Abaco, abacterial, abactinal, abaculus, abacus, Abadan, Abaddon, A bad penny always turns up, bad sort, a, ab aeterno

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use abacus in a sentence

This is the computer that Google is betting on to beat IBM in a race to be among the first to usher in a new era of machines that would make today’s mightiest computer look like an abacus, but through very different approaches.
The Download: donating your body, and climate change momentum|Rhiannon Williams|October 12, 2022|MIT Technology Review
In that ambiguity and with a sliding abacus of nuance, both political parties wrestled with their responses to the fallout and calculations about the impact this would have on the electorate.
A Leaked Supreme Court Draft Threatens to Make Every Race About Abortion|Philip Elliott|May 3, 2022|TIme
I may as well have given them an abacus and asked them to do algebra.
My Kids Navigated Our Road Trip—It Was an Adventure|thodgson|July 12, 2021|Outside Online
This is like the difference between building a stick-in-the-ground sundial versus a comparatively more complex accounting tool like an abacus, as one head of quantum research at a major Wall Street bank put it to me.
Google and China duke it out over ‘quantum supremacy’|rhhackettfortune|December 8, 2020|Fortune

Generally speaking, the abacus is more impressive, or at least more potentially useful.
Google and China duke it out over ‘quantum supremacy’|rhhackettfortune|December 8, 2020|Fortune
Thus, Goldman found them a willing buyer for the junk piled into Abacus.
Goldman's Dirty Customers|John Carney|April 21, 2010|DAILY BEAST
But Abacus and similar deals were already sucking money out of Rhineland, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Goldman's Dirty Customers|John Carney|April 21, 2010|DAILY BEAST
Every Asian capital is like a giant abacus, constantly calculating the relative power of competing states.
Does Obama Care About Asia?|Michael Fullilove|March 19, 2010|DAILY BEAST
The height of the abacus is one seventh of the height of the capital.
Ten Books on Architecture|Vitruvius
The flowers on the four sides are to be made as large as the height of the abacus.
Ten Books on Architecture|Vitruvius
The abacus has a width equivalent to the thickness of the bottom of a column.
Ten Books on Architecture|Vitruvius
It is further distinguished by the use of the zero, which enabled the computer to dispense with the columns of the Abacus.
The Earliest Arithmetics in English|Anonymous
Our next idea would be to put a conical shaped stone beneath this abacus, to support its outer edge, as at b.
The Stones of Venice, Volume I (of 3)|John Ruskin

British Dictionary definitions for abacus

abacus

/ (ˈæbəkəs) /

noun plural -ci (-ˌsaɪ) or -cuses

a counting device that consists of a frame holding rods on which a specific number of beads are free to move. Each rod designates a given denomination, such as units, tens, hundreds, etc, in the decimal system, and each bead represents a digit or a specific number of digits

architect the flat upper part of the capital of a column

Word Origin for abacus

C16: from Latin, from Greek abax board covered with sand for tracing calculations, from Hebrew ābhāq dust

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

abacus

Origin of abacus

Words nearby abacus

Words related to abacus

How to use abacus in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for abacus

Word Origin for abacus