back-of-the-envelope
- adjective
- /ˈbæk əv ði ɪnˈvɛlɪp/
- In many cases, back-of-the-envelope analysis is all you need to assess a particular real estate opportunity.
- a back-of-the-envelope calculation
But we can do like a basic, you know, back of the envelope guess of what the variations of this function is.
- But we can do like a basic, you know, back of the envelope guess of what the variations of this function is.
Examples
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I am just trying to make a back-of-the-envelope calculation to see if it's even plausible.
Blog text (1) -
OK, could we have done, could we figure out a good value for B by doing a back of the envelope calculation?
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And what I initially did was do back of the envelope assessment of whether I was going to live or not.
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So this, at least on a back of the envelope calculation, looks pretty good.
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So this is just a back-of-the-envelope figure.
Blog text (10) -
No, by my back-of-the-envelope calculations, it exceeded design limits by about 20%.
Blog text (20) -
That's a back-of-the-envelope estimate at this point, not detailed analysis.
Blog text (11) -
Using this, we can make a back-of-the-envelope calculation of the second parameter in the equation.
Blog text (9) -
A back-of-the-envelope calculation gives some indication of a relevant time scale for the terrestrial nitrogen deposition problem.
Academic text (1994) -
To estimate the project's cost quickly, we can use a back-of-the-envelope calculation based on similar projects.
Synonyms
Not exact, only a simple first idea
Said or done without planning beforehand
Acting on instinct rather than careful planning
Antonyms
How Detailed
- Informal
Surface Forms
Morphology
back-of-the-envelope = back + the + envelope (semi-transparent) = of + back + the + envelope
The phrase is made of literal words, but its idiomatic meaning 'a quick, informal calculation' is not fully predictable from the components for an average learner. [Postprocessing: moved 'of' from base_words to prefix]
Etymology
The word back-of-the-envelope comes from people quickly writing numbers or ideas on the back of an envelope when they had no other paper. That's why it now means a 'quick', 'informal' and 'rough' calculation or plan.