accurate Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. adjective conforming exactly or almost exactly to fact or to a standard or performing with total accuracy
    • an accurate reproduction
    • the accounting was accurate
    • accurate measurements
    • an accurate scale
  2. adjective satellite (of ideas, images, representations, expressions) characterized by perfect conformity to fact or truth; strictly correct
    precise; exact.
    • a precise image
    • a precise measurement

WordNet

Ac"cu*rate adjective
Etymology
L. accuratus, p. p. and a., fr. accurare to take care of; ad + curare to take care, cura care. See Cure.
Definitions
  1. In exact or careful conformity to truth, or to some standard of requirement, the result of care or pains; free from failure, error, or defect; exact; as, an accurate calculator; an accurate measure; accurate expression, knowledge, etc.
  2. Precisely fixed; executed with care; careful. Obs.
    Those conceive the celestial bodies have more accurate influences upon these things below. Bacon.
    Syn. -- Correct; exact; just; nice; particular. -- Accurate, Correct, Exact, Precise. We speak of a thing as correct with reference to some rule or standard of comparison; as, a correct account, a correct likeness, a man of correct deportment. We speak of a thing as accurate with reference to the care bestowed upon its execution, and the increased correctness to be expected therefrom; as, an accurate statement, an accurate detail of particulars. We speak of a thing as exact with reference to that perfected state of a thing in which there is no defect and no redundance; as, an exact coincidence, the exact truth, an exact likeness. We speak of a thing as precise when we think of it as strictly conformed to some rule or model, as if cut down thereto; as a precise conformity instructions; precisely right; he was very precise in giving his directions.

Webster 1913