# compare

Pronunciation: say "kuhm-PAIR" US /kəmˈpɛɚ/, UK /kəmˈpɛə/

## Verb

1. To examine two or more things in order to identify their similarities and differences.
   - Simple: To look at two or more things to see how they are alike and different.
   - _Reviewers compare each laptop against its closest competitor on speed and battery life._
   - _The study compared survival rates between the two treatment groups._
2. To present one thing as similar to another in some respect.
   - Simple: To say that one thing is like another in some way.
   - _Critics compare the young novelist to early Hemingway._
   - _The poem compares grief to a heavy stone carried everywhere._
3. To be similar to or as good as something else, especially in negative statements.
   - Simple: To be as good as or similar to something else.
   - _Few experiences compare to seeing the ocean for the first time._
   - _The remake simply doesn't compare with the original._
5. To form the positive, comparative, and superlative degrees of an adjective.
   - Simple: To make the three forms of an adjective, like good, better, and best.
   - _Irregular adjectives cannot be compared with endings; 'good,' for example, has the forms better and best._
   - _When you compare a long adjective such as 'beautiful,' you use 'more' and 'most' instead of adding endings._

## Noun

4. Comparison, or the possibility of it; now used mainly in beyond compare and without compare, said of something that has no equal.
   - Simple: Comparing one thing with another. Beyond compare and without compare mean that nothing else is as good.
   - _The cathedral's stained glass is beautiful beyond compare._
   - _In her field she stood without compare for nearly two decades._

## Noun

6. Illustration of an idea by means of comparison; a simile. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: A way of explaining something by likening it to another thing, much like a simile.

## Verb

7. To get hold of or obtain something. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: To get or obtain something.

## Other meanings

- (noun) A program instruction that tests two values or states against each other.

## Origin

From Middle English 'comparen', from Old French 'comparer', from Latin 'comparare', which came from 'compar' ('like or equal to another'), formed from 'com-' plus 'par' ('equal'). It replaced the native Old English word 'metan' ('to compare' or 'to measure').

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/compare (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).