compare

B1 · Intermediate

v. to be as good as or similar to something else.

v. to be worthy of comparison or to bear a resemblance. Frequently used in the negative to suggest one thing is inferior.

“The city's parks are nice, but they don't compare to the ones in London.”

“The local theatre production was charming, but it simply cannot compare to the technical sophistication of a Broadway show.”

B2 · Upper Intermediate Grammar Technical

v. to show the different forms of an adjective, like 'big', 'bigger', and 'biggest'.

v. to inflect an adjective or adverb through its positive, comparative, and superlative degrees.

“In English class, we learned how to compare adjectives like 'happy' and 'fast'.”

“The student struggled to compare irregular adjectives, often mistakenly adding 'more' to words that require a suffix change.”

C1 · Advanced Uncountable noun Literary

n. the act of comparing, used in the phrase 'beyond compare'.

n. the state of being compared; used almost exclusively in the fixed literary phrase 'beyond compare' to mean 'without equal'.

“The beauty of the mountains in winter is beyond compare.”

“The poet described his subject's grace as being beyond compare, suggesting that no other person could possibly match her elegance.”

C2 · Proficiency Countable noun Computing Technical

n. a computer instruction that checks if two values are the same.

n. an operation or instruction that evaluates the relationship between two data values, such as equality or magnitude.

“The program performs a compare on the two numbers to see which is higher.”

“The algorithm's efficiency was hindered by an excessive number of string compares within the primary sorting loop.”