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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

compound.

An enclosure within which workers, prisoners, or soldiers are confined.

8 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈkɒmpaʊnd/Received-Pronunciation/ˈkɑmpaʊnd//ˈkɒmpaʊnd/Boston, Canada, Maine/ˈkɔmpæɔnd/Australia
  1. An enclosure within which workers, prisoners, or soldiers are confined.

  2. An enclosure for secure storage.

  3. A group of buildings situated close together, e.g. for a school or block of offices.

  4. A group of buildings where members of the same extended family live together.

    Philippines · broadly
Where this word comes from

Possibly from Malay kampong, kampung (“group of buildings, village”), via Dutch or Portuguese, altered under the influence of Etymology 2. Doublet of kampung.

adj/ˈkɒmpaʊnd/UK/ˈkɑmpaʊnd//ˈkɒmpaʊnd/Boston, Canada, Maine/ˈkɔmpæɔnd/Australia
  1. Composed of elements; not simple.

    not-comparable
    a compound word
  2. Dealing with numbers of various denominations of quantity, or with processes more complex than the simple process.

    not-comparable
    compound addition
    compound proportion
  3. An octave higher than originally (i.e. a compound major second is equivalent to a major ninth).

    not-comparable
Where this word comes from

From Middle English compounen, from Middle French componre, compondre (“to put together”), from Latin componō, from Latin com- (“together”) + ponō (“to put”).

noun/ˈkɒmpaʊnd/UK/ˈkɑmpaʊnd//ˈkɒmpaʊnd/Boston, Canada, Maine/ˈkɔmpæɔnd/Australia
  1. Anything made by combining several things.

  2. A substance formed by chemical bonding of two or more elements in definite proportions by weight.

  3. A substance made from any combination of ingredients.

    dated
  4. A legal procedure whereby a criminal or delinquent avoids prosecution in a court in exchange for his payment to the authorities of a financial penalty or fine.

  5. A lexeme that consists of more than one stem.

  6. A lexeme that consists of more than one stem or affix, e.g. "bookshop", "high school" or "non-standard".

  7. A compound locomotive, a steam locomotive with both high-pressure and low-pressure cylinders.

  8. Ellipsis of compound exercise.

    abbreviation · alt-of · ellipsis
Where this word comes from

From Middle English compounen, from Middle French componre, compondre (“to put together”), from Latin componō, from Latin com- (“together”) + ponō (“to put”).

verb/ˈkɒmpaʊnd/UK/ˈkɑmpaʊnd//ˈkɒmpaʊnd/Boston, Canada, Maine/ˈkɔmpæɔnd/Australia
  1. To form (a resulting mixture) by combining different elements, ingredients, or parts; to mingle with something else.

    transitive
    to compound a medicine
  2. To settle by agreeing on less than the claim, or on different terms than those stipulated.

    transitive
    to compound a debt
  3. To settle amicably; to adjust by agreement.

    transitive
  4. To come to terms of agreement; to settle by a compromise.

    intransitive
    to compound with someone / for something
  5. To compose; to constitute.

    obsolete · transitive
  6. To increase in value with interest, where the interest is earned on both the principal sum and prior earned interest.

    intransitive
  7. To worsen a situation.

    transitive
  8. Of a horse: to fail to maintain speed.

    intransitive
Where this word comes from

From Middle English compounen, from Middle French componre, compondre (“to put together”), from Latin componō, from Latin com- (“together”) + ponō (“to put”).

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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.