simple past tense and past participle of calculate
"She calculated that we would arrive late if we took the highway."
In plain English: To calculate means to figure out an answer by doing math.
"He calculated the cost of the trip before booking his flight."
Usage: Use "calculated" to describe an action that was performed with careful planning or precise mathematical determination in the past. Avoid confusing this intentional sense with the adjective meaning "deliberate," which describes a person's behavior rather than a completed arithmetic task.
carefully thought out in advance
"a calculated insult"
"with measured irony"
"he made a deliberate decision not to respond negatively"
Arrived at or determined by mathematical calculation; ascertained mathematically.
"The engineer adjusted the calculated load bearing capacity of the bridge to ensure it could withstand extreme weather conditions."
In plain English: Calculated means planned carefully to get a specific result, often with some thought about the risks involved.
"The thief carefully calculated how much cash to steal without raising an alarm."
Usage: Use "calculated" to describe results derived from precise mathematical computation rather than guesswork. Avoid using it to mean deliberate or intentional, which is the more common everyday sense of the word.
Derived from the Latin calculatus, the past participle of calculari meaning to count or reckon with pebbles, it originally referred to the act of computing numbers using small stones. The term later evolved in English to describe anything done deliberately or methodically after careful thought.