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compact

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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From Latin compactum (“agreement”).

Noun

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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], →ISSN:
      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], →ISSN:
      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]:
      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
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Translations
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Verb

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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

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compact (not comparable)

  1. (archaic) Agreed, contracted.
    • 1922, E[ric] R[ücker] Eddison, The Worm Ouroboros‎[4], London: Jonathan Cape, page 20:
      O Gorice XI., most glorious King of Witchland, and O Lord Goldry Bluszco, captain of the hosts of Demonland, it is compact betwixt you, and made fast by mighty oaths whereof I, the Red Foliot, am keeper, that ye shall wrastle three falls together on these conditions, […]

Etymology 2

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

Adjective

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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
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  • The two mathematical senses are favored by different mathematicians and in different branches of mathematics. Mathematicians who use compact in sense 4.2 use the term quasi-compact for sense 4.1; this usage is particularly common in algebraic geometry.
Derived terms
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Translations
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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

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Vintage black enamel compact, c. 1960s

compact (plural compacts)

  1. 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.
  2. An automobile that is larger than a subcompact but smaller than an intermediate.
  3. 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[5]:
      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.
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Translations
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Verb

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

  1. (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)‎[6]:
      You need to excavate and remove the topsoil, line the subsoil with a geotextile, then lay and compact hardcore.
  2. To unite or connect firmly, as in a system.
Synonyms
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Derived terms
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Translations
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See also

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Anagrams

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Dutch

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Etymology

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Borrowed from French compact, from Latin compāctus.

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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compact (comparative compacter, superlative compactst)

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

Declension

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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

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French

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Etymology

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From Latin compāctus.

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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

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

Derived terms

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Descendants

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  • → Romanian: compact
  • → Turkish: kompakt

Noun

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compact m (plural compacts)

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

Further reading

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Romanian

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Etymology

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Borrowed from French compact, from Latin compactus.

Adjective

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

  1. compact

Declension

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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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