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figure out meaning and examples

2025-09-12

Meaning

  • Figure out means to understand, solve, or find the answer to something after thinking about it.
  • It often implies a process of reasoning, analyzing, or working through confusion.

Grammar and Usage

  • Part of speech: Phrasal verb

  • Transitivity: Transitive (requires an object)

  • Structure:

    • figure out + noun/pronoun
    • figure out + question word (how/why/what, etc.)

Examples of patterns:

  • figure out the problem
  • figure out what she meant

Common Phrases

  • figure out a way
  • figure out the answer
  • figure out the problem
  • figure out how to do something

Collocations

  • Verb + figure out: try to figure out, help figure out, manage to figure out
  • Object + figure out: figure out the meaning, figure out the solution, figure out the system

Examples

  1. I can’t figure out how to open this file.
  2. He finally figured out the solution to the puzzle.
  3. We need to figure out a way to reduce costs.
  4. She couldn’t figure out why he was upset.
  5. Can you figure out the meaning of this sentence?
  6. It took me a while to figure out the new software.
  7. The teacher helped us figure out the math problem.
  8. I’m trying to figure out where we should meet.
  • work out
  • solve
  • understand
  • decipher
  • make sense of

Antonym

  • misunderstand
  • confuse
  • get wrong