An apparatus and method for performing a reciprocal. For example one embodiment of a processor comprises: a decoder to decode a reciprocal instruction to generate a decoded reciprocal instruction; a source register to store at least one packed input data element; a destination register to store a result data element; and reciprocal execution circuitry to execute the decoded reciprocal instruction, the reciprocal execution circuitry to use a first portion of the packed input data element as an index to a data structure containing a plurality of sets of coefficients to identify a first set of coefficients from the plurality of sets, the reciprocal execution circuitry to generate a reciprocal of the packed input data element using a combination of the coefficients and a second portion of the packed input data element.