DictionaryAI

content

SayKON-tent/ˈkɑn.tɛnt/UK/ˈkɒn.tɛnt/
As a verb or interjectionkuhn-TENT

Pluralcontents (some meanings)

15 meanings of content

Practice

  1. 1
    creative worknoununcountable
    Videos, posts, articles, music and other material made to be shared with an audience, especially online; also, colloquially, anything that could be turned into such material.

    The platform rewards creators who upload content regularly.

    Much of the festival's content was filmed for later release.

    UsageNo a: creators upload content or new content. Common before nouns: content creator, content management system.

    Similarmaterial, media

    Note

    Taken one step further, the subject matter became the product itself: videos, posts and articles reckoned in bulk.

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 1 fact

    • The sense referring collectively to creative works developed as an extension of the subject-matter sense. en.wiktionary.org
  2. 2
    nouncountable or uncountable
    The subject matter or information contained in writing, speech, video, or similar media.

    The report's content was accurate, though its tone felt dry.

    Teachers review each lesson's content before sharing it with students.

    UsageSay the content of a report or lesson. The plural contents means what a container or book holds, as in table of contents.

    Similarsubstance, material, matter, information (entry)

    Note

    This is what is said, as opposed to how it is said. A speech can be "eloquently delivered" while its content is objectionable. By 2000 the word was turning commercial: John Perry Barlow, writing in Wired, put "content" in scare quotes and spoke of "bottles of dead content", meaning packaged media. The creative-works sense later made that use ordinary.

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

    • John Perry Barlow wrote the cited article in Wired in 2000. wired.com
    • Barlow used scare quotes around content and described packaged creative material as bottles of dead content. wired.com
  3. 3
    what's insidenoununcountable
    That which is held or stored within a container or space.

    When the movers dropped the crate, its contents spilled across the driveway and most of the dishes broke.

    Customs officers opened the crate and carefully listed its contents, from old tools to a bundle of letters.

    UsageMostly plural: the contents of a bag, its contents.

    Similarcontents

  4. 4
    kuhn-TENT/kənˈtɛnt/
    satisfiedadjective
    Feeling satisfied and at ease, wanting nothing more than what one has.

    After years of struggle, they were finally content with their simple life.

    The cat seemed perfectly content curled up by the fire.

    UsageStressed on the second syllable, unlike the noun for material. Mostly after a verb: content with something, content to + verb.

    Similarsatisfied, happy, pleased, fulfilled, comfortable

    Oppositedissatisfied, discontented, unhappy, restless

    Note

    The adjective can follow a verb (well content with the world) or stand before a noun, as in "a content man" in Colin Welland's Chariots of Fire (1981).

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

  5. 5
    amount presentnouncountable or uncountable
    The amount of a particular substance present within a material, food, or product.

    Engineers measured the moisture content of the soil samples.

    Foods with high fiber content aid digestion.

    UsageThe substance comes first: sugar content, alcohol content, and it is high or low: a high fiber content.

    Similarlevel, proportion, amount, concentration, percentage

    Note

    It names a proportion within a whole, not the things held inside.

Practice

Can you tell the meanings of content apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.

Origins

Meanings 4, 6–10

Latin continēre ("to contain") had the past participle contentus ("contained, satisfied"), which led to Middle English contenten ("to satisfy").

Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 4 facts

Meanings 1–3, 5, 11–12

From Middle English content, from Latin contentus, the past participle of continēre ("to hold in, contain"), the same source as the adjective. English apparently developed a noun from the adjective.

Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts