# compare
## English
### Alternative forms

* (abbreviations): cp., comp.

### Etymology

From Middle English comparen, from Old French comparer, from Latin comparare (“to prepare, procure”), from compar (“like or equal to another”), from com- + par (“equal”). Displaced native Old English metan (“to compare,” also “to measure”).

### Pronunciation

* (General American) IPA: /kəmˈpɛɚ/, [kəmˈpɛɚ], [kəmˈpɛɹ], [kəmˈpeɚ], [kəmˈpeɹ]
* (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /kəmˈpɛə/, [kəmˈpɛː], [kəmˈpɛə], [kəmˈpeə]
* Audio (US):(file)
* Rhymes: -ɛə(ɹ)

### Verb

compare (third-person singular simple present compares, present participle comparing, simple past and past participle compared)
* (transitive) To assess the similarities and differences between two or more things ["to compare X with Y"]. Having made the comparison of X with Y, one might have found it similar to Y or different from Y.
    Compare the tiger's coloration with that of the zebra.
    You can't compare my problems and yours.
** 1921, Ben Travers, chapter 6, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC:Sophia broke down here. Even at this moment she was subconsciously comparing her rendering of the part of the forlorn bride with Miss Marie Lohr's.
** 2013 May-June, Katie L. Burke, “In the News”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3, page 193:Bats host many high-profile viruses that can infect humans, including severe acute respiratory syndrome and Ebola. A recent study explored the ecological variables that may contribute to bats’ propensity to harbor such zoonotic diseases by comparing them with another order of common reservoir hosts: rodents.
* (transitive) To declare two things to be similar in some respect ["to compare X to Y"].
    Astronomers have compared comets to dirty snowballs.
** 1625, Francis [Bacon], Apophthegmes New and Old. […], London: […] Hanna Barret, and Richard Whittaker, […], →OCLC:Solon compared the people unto the sea, and orators and counsellors to the winds; for that the sea would be calm and quiet if the winds did not trouble it.
** 1963, C.L.R. James, The Black Jacobins, 2nd Revised edition, page 24:And wordy attacks against slavery drew sneers from observers which were not altogether undeserved. The authors were compared to doctors who offered to a patient nothing more than invectives against the disease which consumed him.
* (transitive, grammar) To form the three degrees of comparison of (an adjective).
    We compare "good" as "good", "better", "best".
* (intransitive) To be similar (often used in the negative).
    A sapling and a fully-grown oak tree do not compare.
** c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iv]:Shall pack-horses […] compare with Caesar's?
* (obsolete) To get; to obtain.
** 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto IV”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 28:To fill his bags, and richesse to compare.

#### Conjugation

| infinitive | (to) compare | (to) compare |
| | present tense | past tense |
| 1st-person singular | compare | compared |
| 2nd-person singular | compare, comparest$^†$ | compared, comparedst$^†$ |
| 3rd-person singular | compares, compareth$^†$ | compared |
| plural | compare | compared |
| subjunctive | compare | compared |
| imperative | compare | — |
| participles | comparing | compared |
$^†$Archaic or obsolete.

#### Derived terms

* comparable
* compare and contrast
* compare and despair
* compare apples to apples
* compare apples with apples
* comparee
* compare notes
* comparingly
* incompared
* intercompare
* miscompare
* recompare
* uncompared

#### Related terms

* comparand, comparandum
* comparative
* comparison
* cf

#### Translations

    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

### Noun

compare (countable and uncountable, plural compares)
* (uncountable) Comparison.
** 1671, John Milton, “Samson Agonistes, […].”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC, page 38, line 557:His mighty Champion, ſtrong above compare,
** a. 1687, Edmund Waller, To my Worth Friend Sir Thomas Higgons:Their small galleys may not hold compare with our tall ships.
* (countable, programming) An instruction or command that compares two values or states.
** 1998, International Conference on Computer Design: Proceedings, IEEE, page 490:[…] including addition and subtraction, memory operations, compares, shifts, logic operations, and condition operations.
** 2013, Paolo Bruni, Carlos Alberto Gomes da Silva Junior, Craig McKellar, Managing DB2 for z/OS Utilities with DB2 Tools Solution Packs
    It is always advisable to run a compare between your source and target environments. This should highlight whether there are differences in the lengths of VARCHARs and then the differences can be corrected before you clone.
* (uncountable, obsolete) Illustration by comparison; simile.
** c. 1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:Rhymes full of protest, of oath, and big compare.

#### Derived terms

* beyond compare

### See also

* contrast

### References

* “compare”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

### Anagrams

* compear, pomerac, precoma

## Asturian
### Verb

compare
* first/third-person singular present subjunctive of comparar

## French
### Pronunciation

* Audio:(file)
* Rhymes: -aʁ

### Verb

compare
* inflection of comparer:
** first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
** second-person singular imperative

## Galician
### Verb

compare
* inflection of comparar:
** first/third-person singular present subjunctive
** third-person singular imperative

## Italian
### Pronunciation

* IPA: /komˈpa.re/
* Rhymes: -are
* Hyphenation: com‧pà‧re

### Etymology 1

From Late Latin compatrem, from Latin com- (“together”) + pater (“father”), whence also padre. Cognate to Neapolitan cumpà, Sicilian cumpari; see more at compater.

#### Noun

compare m (plural compari, feminine comare)
* a child's godfather in relation to their parents: a co-father; or a child's father in relation to their co-father and his family
    Synonym: padrino
* (extensively) a male wedding witness or best man in relation to the spouses, or a bridegroom in relation to his wedding witness
    Synonyms: testimone, testimone di nozze
* (extensively) a way of addressing an old male friend
    Synonym: amico
* (extensively, derogatory) accomplice
    Synonym: complice

##### Derived terms

* comparaggio
* comparatico

##### Related terms

* pare

#### See also

* comare

### Etymology 2
#### Verb

compare
* third-person singular present indicative of comparire
    Synonym: comparisce

### Anagrams

* camperò, compera

## Latin
### Verb

compārē
* second-person singular present active imperative of compāreō

## Middle English
### Verb

compare
* Alternative form of comparen

## Portuguese
### Verb

compare
* inflection of comparar:
** first/third-person singular present subjunctive
** third-person singular imperative

## Romanian
### Pronunciation

* IPA: [komˈpare]

### Verb

compare
* third-person singular/plural present subjunctive of compara

## Spanish
### Verb

compare
* inflection of comparar:
** first/third-person singular present subjunctive
** third-person singular imperative