Compendious

adj

adj ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    containing a subset of words, succinctly described; abridged and summarized

    "AN HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE RAILWAYS OF THE BRITISH ISLES. By Ernest F. Carter. Cassell. 63s. This compendious work, which, with its index, runs to 637 pages, aims to list chronologically the developments of the British railway system."

  2. 2
    briefly describing a body of knowledge
Adjective
  1. 1
    briefly giving the gist of something wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
conciseabbreviatedabridgedacross the boardacross-the-boardall comprehensive

Example

More examples

"After years of study, he has compendious knowledge on the matter."

Etymology

From Old French compendieux, from Latin compendiosus (“advantageous, abridged, brief”), from compendium.

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