What is a 'ballpark figure'?

What it means: A rough estimate - an approximate number that gives you a general idea without being precise. "Can you give me a ballpark figure?" means "I don't need the exact number, just something close."

Where it comes from: An American baseball stadium (ballpark). The logic is that if you're "in the ballpark," you're in roughly the right area - close enough to be useful, even if not exact.

• "Just give me a ballpark - how much will this cost?"
• "Ballpark, we're looking at six weeks"
• "That's in the right ballpark" (means: close to correct)

• "A rough estimate" - more formal and precise as a phrase
• "A rough idea" - conversational
• "In the region of..." - British English, often used for numbers
• "Approximately" - formal, written
• "Give or take" - adds flexibility to a specific number: "three weeks, give or take"

Watch out for: "That's not in the ballpark" means something is way off - not close at all.

Register: Casual to professional. Fine in most business conversations. Too informal for formal written documents.

Tags: business English, numbers, estimation, American English, idiom