Ikkeeksakt

Ikkeeksakt is a term used in Norwegian to indicate that something is not exact or precise. It is commonly employed to qualify statements, measurements, or results that are approximate rather than exact, and can appear in everyday language as well as in academic or professional contexts.

The word is formed from ikke meaning not and eksakt meaning exact. It can function as an adjective or adverb, and is often used to flag uncertainty or to communicate that a value, estimate, or model should not be interpreted as a precise figure. In practice, ikkeeksakt statements are followed by some form of uncertainty indication, such as rounding, ranges, or caveats.

In scientific, technical, and data contexts, ikkeeksakt is used to describe measurements, calculations, or models that involve estimation, tolerance, or simplifications. Examples include reporting a value as ikkeeksakt to one decimal place, describing a result as ikkeeksakt due to rounding, or noting that a model is ikkeeksakt because it captures trends but not every detail of a system.

The term supports clear communication about uncertainty, but it can also be seen as vague if not accompanied by explicit error margins or confidence intervals. In professional settings, it is common to pair ikkeeksakt with more precise qualifiers, such as ranges, standard deviations, or qualitative assessments of reliability.

See also: approximate, estimation, uncertainty, rounding, measurement error.