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Wiktionary

compare

See also: comparé

English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From Middle English comparen, from Old French comparer, from Latin comparare (“to prepare, procure”), from compar (“like or equal to another”), from com- + par (“equal”). Displaced native Old English metan (“to compare,” also “to measure”).

Pronunciation

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Verb

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compare (third-person singular simple present compares, present participle comparing, simple past and past participle compared)

  1. (transitive) To assess the similarities and differences between two or more things ["to compare X with Y"]. Having made the comparison of X with Y, one might have found it similar to Y or different from Y.
    Compare the tiger's coloration with that of the zebra.
    You can't compare my problems and yours.
    • 1921, Ben Travers, chapter 6, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC:
      Sophia broke down here. Even at this moment she was subconsciously comparing her rendering of the part of the forlorn bride with Miss Marie Lohr's.
    • 2013 May-June, Katie L. Burke, “In the News”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3, page 193:
      Bats host many high-profile viruses that can infect humans, including severe acute respiratory syndrome and Ebola. A recent study explored the ecological variables that may contribute to bats’ propensity to harbor such zoonotic diseases by comparing them with another order of common reservoir hosts: rodents.
  2. (transitive) To declare two things to be similar in some respect ["to compare X to Y"].
    Astronomers have compared comets to dirty snowballs.
    • 1625, Francis [Bacon], Apophthegmes New and Old. […], London: […] Hanna Barret, and Richard Whittaker, […], →OCLC:
      Solon compared the people unto the sea, and orators and counsellors to the winds; for that the sea would be calm and quiet if the winds did not trouble it.
    • 1963, C.L.R. James, The Black Jacobins, 2nd Revised edition, page 24:
      And wordy attacks against slavery drew sneers from observers which were not altogether undeserved. The authors were compared to doctors who offered to a patient nothing more than invectives against the disease which consumed him.
  3. (transitive, grammar) To form the three degrees of comparison of (an adjective).
    We compare "good" as "good", "better", "best".
  4. (intransitive) To be similar (often used in the negative).
    A sapling and a fully-grown oak tree do not compare.
  5. (obsolete) To get; to obtain.

Conjugation

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Conjugation of compare
infinitive (to) compare
present tense past tense
1st-person singular compare compared
2nd-person singular compare, comparest† compared, comparedst†
3rd-person singular compares, compareth† compared
plural compare
subjunctive compare compared
imperative compare —
participles comparing compared

†Archaic or obsolete.

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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compare (countable and uncountable, plural compares)

  1. (uncountable) Comparison.
  2. (countable, programming) An instruction or command that compares two values or states.
    • 1998, International Conference on Computer Design: Proceedings, IEEE, page 490:
      […] including addition and subtraction, memory operations, compares, shifts, logic operations, and condition operations.
    • 2013, Paolo Bruni, Carlos Alberto Gomes da Silva Junior, Craig McKellar, Managing DB2 for z/OS Utilities with DB2 Tools Solution Packs
      It is always advisable to run a compare between your source and target environments. This should highlight whether there are differences in the lengths of VARCHARs and then the differences can be corrected before you clone.
  3. (uncountable, obsolete) Illustration by comparison; simile.

Derived terms

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See also

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References

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  • “compare”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

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Asturian

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Verb

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compare

  1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive of comparar

French

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Pronunciation

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Verb

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compare

  1. inflection of comparer:
    1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
    2. second-person singular imperative

Galician

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Verb

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compare

  1. inflection of comparar:
    1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
    2. third-person singular imperative

Italian

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Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /komˈpa.re/
  • Rhymes: -are
  • Hyphenation: com‧pà‧re

Etymology 1

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From Late Latin compatrem, from Latin com- (“together”) + pater (“father”), whence also padre. Cognate to Neapolitan cumpà, Sicilian cumpari; see more at compater.

Noun

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compare m (plural compari, feminine comare)

  1. a child's godfather in relation to their parents: a co-father; or a child's father in relation to their co-father and his family
    Synonym: padrino
  2. (extensively) a male wedding witness or best man in relation to the spouses, or a bridegroom in relation to his wedding witness
    Synonyms: testimone, testimone di nozze
  3. (extensively) a way of addressing an old male friend
    Synonym: amico
  4. (extensively, derogatory) accomplice
    Synonym: complice
Derived terms
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See also

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Etymology 2

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Verb

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compare

  1. third-person singular present indicative of comparire
    Synonym: comparisce

Anagrams

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Latin

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Verb

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compārē

  1. second-person singular present active imperative of compāreō

Middle English

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Verb

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compare

  1. Alternative form of comparen

Portuguese

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Verb

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compare

  1. inflection of comparar:
    1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
    2. third-person singular imperative

Romanian

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Pronunciation

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Verb

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compare

  1. third-person singular/plural present subjunctive of compara

Spanish

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Verb

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compare

  1. inflection of comparar:
    1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
    2. third-person singular imperative
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