figure, number

In the sense in which it is often confused with number, figure means "a numerical symbol," "an amount or value expressed in numbers": "The little boy had difficulty writing the figure 5." "What figure did you arrive at as the total?" A number is a symbol or word, or a combination of symbols or words, used to denote a sum: "The number of people at the party exceeded 100." A number may be expressed in words (one hundred) or figures (100). The use of figure as a verb to mean "to compute" is standard (Figure what I owe you), but its use to mean "to judge" or "to think" or "to conclude" is substandard. As a verb, figure is an overworked word for which the following might be substituted: calculate, comprehend, compute, contrive, determine, reason, suppose, and think."Figure out" is both trite and informal, as are "cut a figure,"figure on," and "it figures."