abacus

[ ab-uh-kuhs, uh-bak-uhs ]

noun

, plural ab·a·cus·es, ab·a·ci [ab, -, uh, -sahy, -kahy, uh, -, bak, -ahy].

1. a device for making arithmetic calculations, consisting of a frame set with rods on which balls or beads are moved.
2. Architecture. a slab forming the top of the capital of a column.

abacus

/ ˈæbəkəs /

noun

1. a counting device that consists of a frame holding rods on which a specific number of beads are free to move. Each rod designates a given denomination, such as units, tens, hundreds, etc, in the decimal system, and each bead represents a digit or a specific number of digits
2. architect the flat upper part of the capital of a column

Word History and Origins

Origin of abacus¹

1350–1400; Middle English < Latin: board, counting board, re-formed < Greek ábax

Word History and Origins

Origin of abacus¹

C16: from Latin, from Greek abax board covered with sand for tracing calculations, from Hebrew ābhāq dust

Example Sentences

This is the computer that Google is betting on to beat IBM in a race to be among the first to usher in a new era of machines that would make today’s mightiest computer look like an abacus, but through very different approaches.

From MIT Technology Review

In that ambiguity and with a sliding abacus of nuance, both political parties wrestled with their responses to the fallout and calculations about the impact this would have on the electorate.

From TIme

I may as well have given them an abacus and asked them to do algebra.

From Outside Online

This is like the difference between building a stick-in-the-ground sundial versus a comparatively more complex accounting tool like an abacus, as one head of quantum research at a major Wall Street bank put it to me.

From Fortune

Generally speaking, the abacus is more impressive, or at least more potentially useful.

From Fortune

Thus, Goldman found them a willing buyer for the junk piled into Abacus.

From The Daily Beast

But Abacus and similar deals were already sucking money out of Rhineland, according to a person familiar with the matter.

From The Daily Beast

Every Asian capital is like a giant abacus, constantly calculating the relative power of competing states.

From The Daily Beast

The height of the abacus is one seventh of the height of the capital.

From Project Gutenberg

The flowers on the four sides are to be made as large as the height of the abacus.

From Project Gutenberg

The abacus has a width equivalent to the thickness of the bottom of a column.

From Project Gutenberg

It is further distinguished by the use of the zero, which enabled the computer to dispense with the columns of the Abacus.

From Project Gutenberg

Our next idea would be to put a conical shaped stone beneath this abacus, to support its outer edge, as at b.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• data processor
• desktop computer
• PC
• personal computer