Library / English Dictionary

EXACT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (adjective) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

(of ideas, images, representations, expressions) characterized by perfect conformity to fact or truth; strictly correct

Example:

a precise measurement

Synonyms:

accurate; exact; precise

Classified under:

Adjectives

Similar:

correct; right (free from error; especially conforming to fact or truth)

Derivation:

exactness (the quality of being exact)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Marked by strict and particular and complete accordance with fact

Example:

hit the exact center of the target

Classified under:

Adjectives

Similar:

direct; verbatim (in precisely the same words used by a writer or speaker)

literal (without interpretation or embellishment)

mathematical (characterized by the exactness or precision of mathematics)

perfect (precisely accurate or exact)

photographic (representing people or nature with the exactness and fidelity of a photograph)

rigorous; strict (rigidly accurate; allowing no deviation from a standard)

Also:

accurate (conforming exactly or almost exactly to fact or to a standard or performing with total accuracy)

literal (limited to the explicit meaning of a word or text)

perfect (being complete of its kind and without defect or blemish)

precise (sharply exact or accurate or delimited)

Antonym:

inexact (not exact)

Derivation:

exactness (the quality of being exact)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Take as an undesirable consequence of some event or state of affairs

Example:

The hard work took its toll on her

Synonyms:

claim; exact; take

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "exact" is one way to...):

ask; call for; demand; involve; necessitate; need; postulate; require; take (require as useful, just, or proper)

Verb group:

ask; call for; demand; involve; necessitate; need; postulate; require; take (require as useful, just, or proper)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody
Something ----s something

Sense 2

Meaning:

Claim as due or just

Example:

The bank demanded payment of the loan

Synonyms:

demand; exact

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "exact" is one way to...):

claim (ask for legally or make a legal claim to, as of debts, for example)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "exact"):

command (demand as one's due)

call; call in (demand payment of (a loan))

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s something from somebody
Somebody ----s that CLAUSE

Sentence example:

The banks exact the check

Derivation:

exaction (act of demanding or levying by force or authority)

Credits

 Context examples: 

Scientists don't yet know the exact composition of the material that appears red, but they believe it's likely a mix of organics and iron.

(NASA's Cassini Finds Saturn's Rings Coat Tiny Moons, NASA)

When added in exact combinations over a period of several weeks, they transformed human pluripotent stem cells into beta cells that functioned similarly to normal adult beta cells.

(Developing Insulin-Producing Cells to Treat Diabetes, NIH)

The third group was meal fed, getting a single meal that added up to the exact number of calories as the round-the-clock group.

(Longer daily fasting times improve health and longevity, National Institutes of Health)

The exact mechanisms by which TMAO affects heart disease is complex.

(Study links frequent red meat consumption to high levels of chemical associated with heart disease, National Institutes of Health)

Further analysis found that mice possess NPGL, and its associated neuron network, in the exact same locations of the brain as those regions already known to control appetite suppression and energy use.

(New Appetite Control Mechanism Found in Brain, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

The exact dates of Mercury retrograde will be February 16 to March 9—keep as far from those dates as possible.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

I shall be brief, and yet exact, in the little which remains for me to tell.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It was Kate Flanagan's best Sunday waist, than whom there was no more exacting and fastidiously dressed woman in Maria's world.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

The city is an exact square, each side of the wall being five hundred feet long.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

What your motives are, or what exact part you play in this strange business, I am not yet able to say.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)