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dead reckoning

noun

Definition of dead reckoning

1 : the determination without the aid of celestial observations of the position of a ship or aircraft from the record of the courses sailed or flown, the distance made, and the known or estimated drift
2 : guesswork
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Other Words from dead reckoning

dead reckon verb

Examples of dead reckoning in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

 In 1995, the 174m Panamanian cruise ship Royal Majesty had a mechanical failure that forced its navigation system to switch from GPS to dead reckoning. — Jim Salter, Ars Technica, "Claims of Tesla hack wide of the mark—we dig into GNSS hacking," 22 June 2019

First Known Use of dead reckoning

1613, in the meaning defined at sense 1

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