compares

1. 1
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of compare.

   The review compares the new model to last year's version.

   He often compares his hometown with the city he lives in now.

   Note

   The form a single subject takes in the present: she compares, it compares. The preposition after it carries the meaning. Compares X with Y weighs likeness against difference, while compares X to Y claims a likeness. With no object it means "is similar" and leans toward the negative, as in nothing compares. The plural noun has the same spelling, so the word in front tells you which one you are reading.

2. 2
   noun

   Plural of compare.

   Each pass through the loop costs two compares and a jump.

   Profiling showed that string compares, not disk reads, were slowing the program down.

   Note

   A plural that belongs to programming, where a compare is one instruction testing two values or states against each other. Only that countable meaning takes an -s. The general sense, comparison, and the obsolete one, simile, are uncountable. Programmers tally compares as costs, such as two per loop or too many on strings, and a number or article in front keeps them apart from the verb form.

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