compact

• Noun:
  • (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈkɒmˌpækt/
  • (US) IPA^(key): /ˈkɑmˌpækt/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Adjective:
  • (UK) IPA^(key): /kəmˈpækt/
  • (US) IPA^(key): /kəmˈpækt/, /ˈkɑmˌpækt/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Verb:
  • (US, UK) IPA^(key): /kəmˈpækt/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: (adjective, verb) -ækt

From Latin compactum (“agreement”).

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, →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, →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:

     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.

• interstate compact
• social compact

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.

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

compact (comparative more compact or compacter, superlative most compact or compactest)

1. Closely packed, i.e. packing much in a small space.

   Synonyms: concentrated, crowded, dense, serried; see also Thesaurus:compact

   Hyponym: ultracompact

   • 1704, I[saac] N[ewton], “(please specify |book=1 to 3)”, in Opticks: Or, A Treatise of the Reflexions, Refractions, Inflexions and Colours of Light. […], London: […] Sam[uel] Smith, and Benj[amin] Walford, printers to the Royal Society, […], →OCLC:

     glass, crystal, gems, and other compact bodies

2. Having all necessary features fitting neatly into a small space.

   a compact laptop computer

3. (topology, not comparable, of a topological space) 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

   1. (topology, not comparable, of a topological space) Compact in the above sense and moreover Hausdorff.
4. Brief; close; pithy; not diffuse; not verbose.

   a compact discourse

5. (obsolete) Joined or held together; leagued; confederated.
   • c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i], page 81:

     Thou fooliſh Frier, and thou pernicious woman / Compact with her that's gone:

   • 1622, Henry Peacham (Junior), The Compleat Gentleman:

     a pipe of seven reeds, compact with wax together

6. (obsolete) Composed or made; with of.
   • 1667, John Milton, “Book VIII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:

     A wandering fire, / Compact of unctuous vapor.

The two mathematical senses are favoured by different mathematicians and in different branches of mathematics. Mathematicians who use compact to mean sense 3.1 use the term quasi-compact to refer to sense 3; this usage is particularly common in algebraic geometry.

Vintage black enamel compact, c. 1960s

compact (plural compacts)

1. A small, slim folding case, often featuring a mirror, powder and a powderpuff; that fits into a woman's purse or handbag, or that slips into one's 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:

     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.

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)‎:

     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.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Ephesians 4:16:

     The whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth.

• (make more dense): compress, condense; see also Thesaurus:compress

• Compact (cosmetics) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• accompt

Borrowed from French compact, from Latin compāctus.

• IPA^(key): /kɔmˈpɑkt/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: com‧pact
• Rhymes: -ɑkt

compact (comparative compacter, superlative compactst)

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

• compactheid

From Latin compāctus.

• IPA^(key): /kɔ̃.pakt/

• Audio

  (file)

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)

• disque compact

• → Romanian: compact
• → Turkish: kompakt

compact m (plural compacts)

1. compact disc

   Synonyms: Compact Disc, disque compact

2. music center (US), music centre (UK)
3. compact camera

• “compact”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Borrowed from French compact, from Latin compactus.

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

1. compact