rounding: Meaning and Definition of

round•ing

Pronunciation: (roun'ding), [key]
— adj.
  1. round or nearly round.
  2. of, pertaining to, or used for making something round.
  3. turning, curving, or circling around.
  4. pertaining to the mathematical process of rounding: a rounding error.
—n.
  1. the act or process of making something round.
  2. To the nearest dollar, the rounding of $27.68 yields $28.
    1. the process of replacing a number by another number of approximately the same value but having fewer digits:To the nearest dollar, the rounding of $27.68 yields $28.
    2. a similar process that specifies one of various rules. Generally, the number is first truncated to one or two digits more than is desired; then the last one or two digits are adjusted in a specified way in order to reflect the magnitude of the original number. In rounding the final digits, 0–4 are simply dropped, 6–9 are dropped after the preceding digit is increased by 1, and 5 is handled in various ways depending on the surrounding digits and the particular convention being followed. Cf.truncate(def. 2).
Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Copyright © 1997, by Random House, Inc., on Infoplease.
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