Compare

//kəmˈpɛɚ// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Comparison. uncountable

    "His mighty Champion, ſtrong above compare,"

  2. 2
    qualities that are comparable wordnet
  3. 3
    An instruction or command that compares two values or states. countable

    "[…] including addition and subtraction, memory operations, compares, shifts, logic operations, and condition operations."

  4. 4
    Illustration by comparison; simile. obsolete, uncountable

    "Rhymes full of protest, of oath, and big compare."

Verb
  1. 1
    To assess the similarities and differences between two or more things ["to compare X with Y"]. Having made the comparison of X with Y, one might have found it similar to Y or different from Y. transitive

    "Compare the tiger's coloration with that of the zebra."

  2. 2
    examine and note the similarities or differences of wordnet
  3. 3
    To declare two things to be similar in some respect ["to compare X to Y"]. transitive

    "Astronomers have compared comets to dirty snowballs."

  4. 4
    consider or describe as similar, equal, or analogous wordnet
  5. 5
    To form the three degrees of comparison of (an adjective). transitive

    "We compare "good" as "good", "better", "best"."

Show 4 more definitions
  1. 6
    to form the comparative or superlative form on an adjective or adverb wordnet
  2. 7
    To be similar (often used in the negative). intransitive

    "A sapling and a fully-grown oak tree do not compare."

  3. 8
    be comparable wordnet
  4. 9
    To get; to obtain. obsolete

    "To fill his bags, and richesse to compare."

Synonyms

All synonyms
likenaccumulateadmit of comparisonagainaggregatealleged

Example

More examples

"Compare your answers with the teacher's."

Etymology

From Middle English comparen, from Old French comparer, from Latin comparare (“to prepare, procure”), from compar (“like or equal to another”), from com- + par (“equal”). Displaced native Old English metan (“to compare,” also “to measure”).

Related phrases

beyond comparecompare and contrastcompare and despaircompare apples to applescompare apples with applescompare notesand contrastdegrees of comparisonevaluate twojudge againstmeans contrastrate against

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.