overwordExplorer
ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

comply.

To yield assent; to accord; to acquiesce, agree, consent; to adapt oneself, to conform.

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/kəmˈplaɪ/Canada, General-American, Received-Pronunciation/kəmˈplɑe/Australia[kəmˈplɑe̯]New-Zealand
  1. To yield assent; to accord; to acquiesce, agree, consent; to adapt oneself, to conform.

    comply with rules
    comply fully
  2. To accomplish, to fulfil.

    archaic
  3. To be ceremoniously courteous; to make one's compliments.

    archaic
  4. To enfold; to embrace.

    archaic
Where this word comes from

From Italian complire, Catalan complir (“to complete, fulfil; to carry out”), Spanish cumplir (“to complete, fulfil”), (alternatively from Old French compli), from Latin complēre, from compleō (“to finish, complete; to fulfil”), from com- (prefix indicating completeness of an act) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm (“beside, near; by, with”)) + pleō (“to fill; to fulfil”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *pleh₁- (“to fill”)). The word is very close to the French verb complaire which means to satisfy or to please. The word is also cognate with Old French complir (“to accomplish, complete; to do”) (modern French accomplir (“to accomplish, achieve”)). Compare complete, compliment.

FROM WORD TO NAME

Try it on your idea.

comply has 6 characters. Say it out loud, try it alongside a description of your project, and see whether its meaning fits what you want to create.

comply studiocomply workshello, comply

These are naming prompts. Meanings and pronunciation can vary; existing brand and domain uses have not been checked.

Explore the name generator

A word with a source.

Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.