Exact
//ɪɡˈzækt// adj, adv, verb
adj, adv, verb ·Common ·Middle school level
Definitions
Verb
- 1 To demand and enforce the payment or performance of, sometimes in a forcible or imperious way. ambitransitive
"to exact tribute, fees, or obedience from someone"
- 2 take as an undesirable consequence of some event or state of affairs wordnet
- 3 To make desirable or necessary. transitive
"I vvait, Madam, / To knovv vvhat your commands are; my deſignes / Exact me in another place."
- 4 claim as due or just wordnet
- 5 To inflict; to forcibly obtain or produce; to visit. transitive
"to exact revenge on someone"
Adjective
- 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."
- 2 Habitually careful to agree with a standard, a rule, or a promise; accurate; methodical; punctual.
"a man exact in observing an appointment"
- 3 Precisely or definitely conceived or stated; strict.
"An exact command, Larded with many several sorts of reason."
- 4 Such that the kernel of each morphism is the image of the preceding one. not-comparable
- 5 Such that it preserves short exact sequences. not-comparable
Adjective
- 1 lacking compromising or mitigating elements wordnet
- 2 (of ideas, images, representations, expressions) characterized by perfect conformity to fact or truth; strictly correct wordnet
- 3 marked by strict and particular and complete accordance with fact wordnet
Adverb
- 1 exactly
"She's wearing the exact same sweater as I am!"
Example
More examples"Life is not an exact science, it is an art."
Etymology
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”).
Related phrases
More for "exact"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.