# compounding

Pronunciation: say "kuhm-POWN-ding" /kəmˈpaʊndɪŋ/

## Verb

1. Present participle and gerund of compound. — present participle and gerund of compound
   - Simple: Present participle and gerund of compound. Use this when something keeps adding to itself or is being mixed together.
   - _The errors were compounding as deadlines slipped._
   - _Compounding the original mistake, he sent the wrong file again._

## Noun

2. Growth that results when interest earns further interest, period after period.
   - Simple: The growth of money when interest is added to interest you already earned.
   - _The power of compounding becomes obvious only over long investment horizons._
   - _Daily compounding produced a slightly higher return than the monthly option._
3. The preparation of a compound, such as a medicine, by mixing or combining substances.
   - Simple: The act of mixing substances together to make something, such as a medicine.
   - _The compounding of the prescription required two different active ingredients._
   - _Modern pharmacies still offer compounding for patients who need custom doses._
4. The reuse of steam in a steam engine or turbine, passing it through additional low-pressure cylinders to extract more work.
   - Simple: The use of steam more than once inside an engine to get more power from it.
   - _Compounding improved the efficiency of marine steam engines in the nineteenth century._
   - _The ship's engine relied on compounding to squeeze more power from each boiler load._

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