compact

English

Pronunciation

  • Noun:
    • (UK) IPA(key): /ˈkɒmˌpækt/
    • (US) IPA(key): /ˈkɑmˌpækt/
    • Audio (Southern England):(file)
  • Adjective:
    • (UK) IPA(key): /kəmˈpækt/
    • (US) IPA(key): /kəmˈpækt/, /ˈkɑmˌpækt/
    • Audio (Southern England):(file)
  • Verb:
  • Rhymes: (adjective, verb) -ækt

Etymology 1

    Borrowed from Latin compactum (“agreement”).

    Noun

    compact (plural compacts)

    1. An agreement or contract.
      Synonyms: agreement, contract, pact, treaty
      • 2021 April 29, Peter Baker, “Biden Seeks Shift in How the Nation Serves Its People”, in The New York Times‎[1], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 18 January 2026:
        President Biden laid out an ambitious agenda on Wednesday night to rewrite the American social compact by vastly expanding family leave, child care, health care, preschool and college education for millions of people to be financed with increased taxes on the wealthiest earners.
      • 2022 January 25, David Yaffe-Bellany, “The Rise of the Crypto Mayors”, in The New York Times‎[2], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 24 January 2026:
        After taking over this month as president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, a nonpartisan coalition of city mayors, he urged members to sign a “crypto compact” calling on the federal government to eschew overly aggressive regulation of the industry.
      • 2023 February 21, Chandran Nair, “Anti-China Rhetoric Is Off the Charts in Western Media”, in The Diplomat‎[3], archived from the original on 29 August 2026:
        Countering this in international media by offering more balanced views for a global audience is near impossible as censorship is rife. There almost seems to be a global compact to control the narrative, a propaganda war powered by today’s digital technology.
    Derived terms
    Translations

    Verb

    compact (third-person singular simple present compacts, present participle compacting, simple past and past participle compacted)

    1. (intransitive) To form an agreement or contract.
      • 2004, Ronan Deazley, On the Origin of the Right to Copy, page 94:
        In return for the sovereign's protection, they compacted to police the content of public literature.

    Adjective

    compact (not comparable)

    1. (archaic) Agreed, contracted.

    Etymology 2

      From Middle French compact, from Latin compāctus, perfect passive participle of compingō (“join together”), from com- (“together”) + pangō (“fasten”), from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂ǵ- (“to attach, fix, fasten”).

      Adjective

      compact (comparative more compact or compacter, superlative most compact or compactest)

      1. Closely packed or densely constituted; having much material in a small volume.
        Synonyms: concentrated, crowded, dense, serried; see also Thesaurus:compact
        Hyponym: ultracompact
      2. Having all necessary features fitting neatly into a small space.
        a compact laptop computer
      3. (of prose) Brief and pithy; not verbose.
        a compact discourse
      4. (topology, not comparable) Of a topological space:
        2. Such that every open cover has a finite subcover. In a metric space, this is equivalent to being sequentially compact. In metric spaces with the Heine-Borel property, this is equivalent to being closed and bounded.
          Synonym: quasi-compact
        4. Compact in the above sense and moreover Hausdorff.
      5. (obsolete) Joined or held together; leagued; confederated.
      6. (obsolete) Composed or made; with of.
        • 1667, John Milton, “Book VIII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
          A wandering fire, / Compact of unctuous vapor.
      Usage notes
      Derived terms
      Translations
      The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
      Translations to be checked

      Noun

      Vintage black enamel compact, c. 1960s

      compact (plural compacts)

      2. A slim folding case, often featuring a mirror, powder and a powder puff, small enough to fit in a woman's purse, handbag, or pocket.
        Synonym: powder box
      3. An automobile that is larger than a subcompact but smaller than an intermediate.
      4. A broadsheet newspaper published in the size of a tabloid but keeping its non-sensational style.
        • 2012, BBC News, “Dundee Courier makes move to compact”, in bbc.co.uk‎[4]:
          The Dundee Courier has announced the newspaper will be relaunching as a compact later this week. Editor Richard Neville said a "brighter, bolder" paper would appear from Saturday, shrunk from broadsheet to tabloid size.
      Derived terms
      Translations

      Verb

      compact (third-person singular simple present compacts, present participle compacting, simple past and past participle compacted)

      2. (transitive) To make more dense; to compress.
        • 2014 August 24, Jeff Howell, “Home improvements: gravel paths and cutting heating bills [print version: Cold comfort in technology, 23 August 2014, p. P5]”, in The Daily Telegraph (Property)‎[5]:
          You need to excavate and remove the topsoil, line the subsoil with a geotextile, then lay and compact hardcore.
      3. To unite or connect firmly, as in a system.
      Synonyms
      Derived terms
      Translations

      Further reading

      Anagrams

      Dutch

      Etymology

      Borrowed from French compact, from Latin compāctus.

      Pronunciation

      • IPA(key): /kɔmˈpɑkt/
      • Audio:(file)
      • Hyphenation: com‧pact
      • Rhymes: -ɑkt

      Adjective

      compact (comparative compacter, superlative compactst)

      1. compact (closely packed), dense
      2. compact (having all necessary features fitting neatly into a small space)

      Declension

      Declension of compact
      uninflected compact
      inflected compacte
      comparative compacter
      positive comparative superlative
      predicative/adverbial compact compacter het compactst
      het compactste
      indefinite m./f. sing. compacte compactere compactste
      n. sing. compact compacter compactste
      plural compacte compactere compactste
      definite compacte compactere compactste
      partitive compacts compacters —

      Derived terms

      French

      Etymology

      Learned borrowing from Latin compāctus.

      Pronunciation

      Adjective

      compact (feminine compacte, masculine plural compacts, feminine plural compactes)

      1. dense, compact (closely packed)
      2. compact (having all necessary features fitting neatly into a small space)

      Derived terms

      Descendants

      • → German: kompakt
      • → Romanian: compact
      • → Turkish: kompakt

      Noun

      compact m (plural compacts)

      1. compact disc
        Synonyms: Compact Disc, disque compact
      2. music center (US), music centre (UK)
      3. compact camera

      Further reading

      Romanian

      Etymology

      Etymology tree
      Latin compactus
      French compactbor.
      Romanian compact

        Borrowed from French compact, from Latin compactus.

        Adjective

        compact m or n (feminine singular compactă, masculine plural compacți, feminine/neuter plural compacte)

        1. compact

        Declension

        Declension of compact
        singular plural
        masculine neuter feminine masculine neuter feminine
        nominative-
        accusative         		indefinite compact compactă compacți compacte
        definite compactul compacta compacții compactele
        genitive-
        dative         		indefinite compact compacte compacți compacte
        definite compactului compactei compacților compactelor
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