Word
compound
Phoneticscom·pound
/ˈkɑmpaʊnd/
Definitions
01chemical substance
n. a substance made when two or more chemical elements are joined together.
n. 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.”
Academic
Usage
Often used with 'chemical' or 'organic'.
Antonyms
02fenced area
n. an area of land that contains a group of buildings and is surrounded by a fence or wall.
n. 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.”
03linguistics
n. a word made by joining two or more existing words together.
n. 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.”
Academic · Technical
Usage
Commonly refers to 'compound words'.
Synonyms
04to make worse
v. to make a difficult situation or problem even worse.
v. 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.”
Synonyms
05finance
v. to calculate interest on both the original amount of money and the interest already earned.
v. 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.”
Technical
Usage
Often used as 'compounded interest' or 'to compound annually'.
Synonyms
06made of parts
adj. consisting of two or more parts or elements.
adj. 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.”
Academic
Real-World Examples
“That smoky flavor can also be created by using liquid smoke , which is made by capturing smoke from burning wood and mixing its flavor compounds into a liquid.” “Outside the compound gate, neighbourhood children stand on tiptoe, peering through the entrance as the singing spills into the street.” “Researchers suspect natural citrus compounds such as hesperidin may be partly responsible.” “The mushroom Psilocybe pelliculosa is one of several species that produce psilocybin, a natural compound with hallucinogenic properties.” Etymology
Possibly from Malay kampong, kampung (“group of buildings, village”), via Dutch or Portuguese, altered under the influence of Etymology 2. Doublet of kampung.
From Middle English compounen, from Middle French componre, compondre (“to put together”), from Latin componō, from Latin com- (“together”) + ponō (“to put”).
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
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englishreference.com/q/compound