exact - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Latin exāctus (the verb via Middle English exact), perfect passive participle of exigō (“demand, claim as due; measure by a standard, weigh, test”), from ex (“out”) + agō (“drive”).

exact (comparative exacter or more exact, superlative exactest or most exact)

  1. Precisely agreeing with a standard, a fact, or the truth; perfectly conforming; neither exceeding nor falling short in any respect.
    The clock keeps exact time.
    He paid the exact debt.
    an exact copy of a letter
    exact accounts
  2. Habitually careful to agree with a standard, a rule, or a promise; accurate; methodical; punctual.
    a man exact in observing an appointment
    In my doings I was exact.
    • 1667, John Milton, “Book VIII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
      I see thou art exact of taste.
    • 1661, John Fell, The Life of the most learned, reverend and pious Dr. H. Hammond‎[1]:
      During the whole time of his abode in the university he generally spent thirteen hours of the day in study; by which assiduity besides an exact dispatch of the whole course of philosophy, he read over in a manner all classic authors that are extant […]
  3. Precisely or definitely conceived or stated; strict.
  4. (algebra, of a sequence of groups connected by homomorphisms) Such that the kernel of one homomorphism is the image of the preceding one.

precisely agreeing

precisely conceived or stated

such that kernel equals image

exact (third-person singular simple present exacts, present participle exacting, simple past and past participle exacted)

  1. (transitive, intransitive) To demand and enforce the payment or performance of, sometimes in a forcible or imperious way.
    to exact tribute, fees, or obedience from someone
    • 2018, Edo Konrad, “Living in the constant shadow of settler violence”, in +972 Magazine:
      Their goal is retributive: to exact a price from Palestinian civilians (and in some cases left-wing Israeli Jews, Christians, and Israeli security forces) for actions Israeli authorities take against the settlers, usually building enforcement in illegally built settlements.
    • 2020 September 19, statement of Clarence Thomas on the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg[2]:
      She was a superb judge who gave her best and exacted the best from each of us, whether in agreement or disagreement.
    • 2020, Kristine Henriksen Garroway, John W. Martens, Children and Methods, page 139:
      […] a generic, strikingly universal, deity, “ha-elohim,” who tests, who exacts and extracts, and who is the object of fear […]
  2. (transitive) To make desirable or necessary.
  3. (transitive) To inflict; to forcibly obtain or produce; to visit.
    to exact revenge on someone

To demand and enforce

To make desirable or necessary

To forcibly obtain or produce

exact (comparative more exact, superlative most exact)

  1. exactly
    She's wearing the exact same sweater as I am!

Borrowed from French exact, from Middle French exact, from Latin exāctus.

exact (comparative exacter, superlative exactst)

  1. exact, precise
Declension of exact
uninflected exact
inflected exacte
comparative exacter
positive comparative superlative
predicative/adverbial exact exacter het exactsthet exactste
indefinite m./f. sing. exacte exactere exactste
n. sing. exact exacter exactste
plural exacte exactere exactste
definite exacte exactere exactste
partitive exacts exacters —

From Latin exāctus.

exact (feminine exacte, masculine plural exacts, feminine plural exactes)

  1. exact; precise

Borrowed from French exact.

exact m or n (feminine singular exactă, masculine plural exacți, feminine and neuter plural exacte)

  1. exact, precise

exact

  1. exactly, precisely