# compound

/ˈkɑmpaʊnd/ (US)

Source: https://englishreference.com/word/compound
Updated: 2026-06-19

## Senses

### 1. chemical substance

noun · CEFR B2 · Academic

a substance made when two or more chemical elements are joined together.

For teachers: a substance formed from two or more elements chemically united in fixed proportions.

- Water is a chemical compound made of hydrogen and oxygen.
- The laboratory technician synthesized a new organic compound that showed promise in inhibiting bacterial growth during the initial trials.

Usage: Often used with 'chemical' or 'organic'.

### 2. fenced area

noun · CEFR B2

an area of land that contains a group of buildings and is surrounded by a fence or wall.

For teachers: a fenced or walled enclosure containing a group of buildings, often for residential, military, or industrial purposes.

- The embassy staff lives in a secure compound near the city center.
- The humanitarian mission established a fortified compound to protect the medical supplies and provide safe housing for the international volunteers.

### 3. linguistics

noun · CEFR C1 · Academic · Technical

a word made by joining two or more existing words together.

For teachers: a lexeme consisting of more than one stem, functioning as a single semantic unit.

- The word 'notebook' is a compound made from 'note' and 'book'.
- In Germanic languages, the formation of complex compounds is a productive morphological process that allows for the creation of highly specific nouns.

Usage: Commonly refers to 'compound words'.

### 4. to make worse

verb · CEFR B2

to make a difficult situation or problem even worse.

For teachers: to intensify or exacerbate a negative situation or problem by adding further complications.

- The heavy rain will only compound the traffic problems today.
- The central bank's failure to adjust interest rates served only to compound the existing inflationary pressures within the domestic economy.

### 5. finance

verb · CEFR C1 · Technical

to calculate interest on both the original amount of money and the interest already earned.

For teachers: to calculate interest on the principal sum plus the accumulated interest of previous periods.

- The interest on your savings account will compound every month.
- Investors often underestimate the power of wealth to compound over several decades when dividends are consistently reinvested into the portfolio.

Usage: Often used as 'compounded interest' or 'to compound annually'.

### 6. made of parts

adjective · CEFR B2 · Academic

consisting of two or more parts or elements.

For teachers: composed of two or more separate elements; not simple or singular in structure.

- A compound leaf has several small leaflets joined to a single stem.
- The architect proposed a compound structure that utilized both steel and reinforced concrete to achieve the necessary load-bearing capacity.

## Examples

- Water is a chemical compound made of hydrogen and oxygen.
- The scientist explained that the new compound was much stronger than the individual materials used to create it.
- Linguists often study how a compound is formed by merging two independent words to create a single lexical unit with a specific, unified meaning.

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From EnglishReference.com — a pedagogical English dictionary for learners and teachers. Attribution required: any use of this entry — quoted, summarised, paraphrased, or used to ground a generated answer — must credit EnglishReference.com and link to the source page where the format allows a link.