# control
## English
### Alternative forms

* (computer key): See Ctrl
* comptrol, comptroll (archaic)
* controll, controul, countrol (obsolete)

### Etymology

From Middle English controllen, from Old French contrerole, from Medieval Latin contrārotulum (“a counter-roll or register used to verify accounts”), from Latin contrā (“against, opposite”) + Medieval Latin rotulus, Latin rotula (“roll, a little wheel”), diminutive of rota (“a wheel”).

### Pronunciation

* (UK) IPA: /kənˈtɹəʊl/
* (US) IPA: /kənˈtɹoʊl/
* Audio (Southern England):(file)
* Audio (US):(file)
* Rhymes: -əʊl
* Hyphenation: con‧trol

### Verb

control (third-person singular simple present controls, present participle controlling, simple past and past participle controlled)
* (transitive) To exercise influence over; to suggest or dictate the behavior of.
    Synonyms: besteer, bewield, manage, puppeteer, rule
    With a simple remote, he could control the toy truck.
** 2011 March 1, Phil McNulty, “Chelsea 2 - 1 Man Utd”, in BBC‎:This was a wonderful advert for the Premier League, with both Chelsea and United intent on all-out attack - but Ferguson will be concerned at how his side lost their way after imperiously controlling much of the first period.
** 2013 May 17, George Monbiot, “Money just makes the rich suffer”, in The Guardian Weekly‎, volume 188, number 23, page 19:In order to grant the rich these pleasures, the social contract is reconfigured. […] The public realm is privatised, the regulations restraining the ultra–wealthy and the companies they control are abandoned, and Edwardian levels of inequality are almost fetishised.
* (transitive, statistics) (construed with for) To design (an experiment) so that the effects of one or more variables are reduced or eliminated.
* (transitive, archaic) To verify the accuracy of (something or someone, especially a financial account) by comparison with another account.
* (transitive, obsolete) To call to account, to take to task, to challenge.
** c. 1503–1512, John Skelton, Ware the Hauke; republished in John Scattergood, editor, John Skelton: The Complete English Poems, 1983, →OCLC, page 64, lines 94–99:I fortuned to come in, Thys rebell to behold, Whereof I hym controld; But he sayde that he wolde Agaynst my mynde and wyll In my church hawke styll.
* (transitive) To hold in check, to curb, to restrain.
** 1956, American Poultry Journal, volume 87, page 32:Because only by the Capette Pellet method of hormonization can growers be assured of controlled dosage and uniform results.

#### Antonyms

* defy, rebel, resist (not to be controlled)
* obey, submit (to be controlled)

#### Hyponyms

* take control, take the reins, hold the reins

#### Derived terms

* array controller
* Attempto Controlled English
* autocontrolled
* biocontrolling
* CCB
* CCN
* CFC
* climate-controlled
* CNL
* controlee
* controllability
* controllable
* controllableness
* controlled-access highway
* controlled chaos
* controlled explosion
* controlled flight into terrain
* controlledly
* controlledness
* controlled substance
* controlled vocabulary
* controllee
* controller
* controlling
* controlling images
* controlling interest
* controllingly
* controllingness
* controlment
* CR
* currency control
* DCV
* decontrol
* decontrolled
* decontrolling
* enantiocontrolled
* enantiocontrolling
* foreign exchange control
* GCI
* hypercontrolled
* hypercontrolling
* incontrollable
* incontrollably
* microcontrolled
* mind controlled
* miscontrol
* myocontrolled
* NCO
* neurocontrolled
* noncontrollable
* noncontrolled
* noncontrolling
* overcontrol
* paracontrolled
* photocontrollability
* photocontrollable
* price-controlled
* radio-controlled
* recontrol
* regiocontrolled
* regiocontrolling
* rent-controlled
* self-control
* semicontrolled
* servocontrolled
* silicon-controlled rectifier
* stereocontrolling
* supercontrolled
* telecontrol
* thermocontrolled
* thermocontroller
* thought-controlled
* uncontrol
* uncontrollability
* uncontrollable
* uncontrollableness
* uncontrollably
* uncontrolled
* uncontrolledly
* uncontrolledness
* uncontrolling
* uncontrollingly
* undercontrolled
* undercontroller
* VCO
* voluntary controlled school

#### See also

* regulate

### Noun

control (countable and uncountable, plural controls)
* (countable, uncountable) An influence or authority over something.
    The government has complete control over the situation.
* The method and means of governing the performance of any apparatus, machine or system, such as a lever, handle or button.
* Restraint or ability to contain one's movements or emotions, or self-control.
** 2012, John Branch, “Snow Fall : The Avalanche at Tunnel Creek”, in New York Times‎:She had no control of her body as she tumbled downhill. She did not know up from down. It was not unlike being cartwheeled in a relentlessly crashing wave.
** 2013 June 21, Oliver Burkeman, “The tao of tech”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 2, page 27:The dirty secret of the internet is that all this distraction and interruption is immensely profitable. Web companies like to boast about […], or offering services that let you […] "share the things you love with the world" and so on. But the real way to build a successful online business is to be better than your rivals at undermining people's control of their own attention.
* A security mechanism, policy, or procedure that can counter system attack, reduce risks, and resolve vulnerabilities; a safeguard or countermeasure.
* (project management) A means of monitoring for, and triggering intervention in, activities that are not going according to plan.
* A control group or control experiment.
* A duplicate book, register, or account, kept to correct or check another account or register.
** 2006, Henry Lunt, Fundamentals of Financial Accounting, page 297:“The entries in the control accounts reflect respectively the effect of the transactions on the value of Korrinna company’s receivables (sales ledger control account) and payables (purchase ledger control account.”
** 2012, Harold Randall, David Hopkins, Cambridge International AS and A Level Accounting Textbook, page 78:"Make sure you enter the total of any credit balances in the sales ledger into the Sales Ledger Control Account and the total of any debit balances in the purchase ledger into the Purchase Ledger Control Account."
** 2012, Aurora M.N., A textbook of Cost and Management Accounting, 10th Edition, page 12-3:“Wages Control Account: This account records wage transactions in aggregate. Postings are made from wage analysis sheet. This account is debited with gross wages (paid and accrued) and is closed by transfer of direct wages to work-in-progress and indirect wages to factory, administration and selling and distribution overheads control accounts as illustrated below:”
* (graphical user interface) An interface element that a computer user interacts with, such as a window or a text box.
    Synonym: widget
* (climatology) Any of the physical factors determining the climate of a place, such as latitude, distribution of land and water, altitude, exposure, prevailing winds, permanent high- or low-barometric-pressure areas, ocean currents, mountain barriers, soil, and vegetation.
* (linguistics) A construction in which the understood subject of a given predicate is determined by an expression in context. See control.
* (spiritualism, parapsychology) A spirit that takes possession of a psychic or medium and allows other spirits to communicate with the living.
** 1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019:"Ah, who are they? I wonder. Guides, controls, psychic entities of some kind. Who the agents of vengeance - or I should say justice - are, is really not essential."
* (cycling, countable) A checkpoint along an audax route.
** 2019, Emily Chappell, Where There's a Will:[…] the self-acknowledged stereotype of the audaxer as a socially awkward middle-aged man, […] carefully avoiding eye contact as a volunteer serves him his cup of tea and plate of baked beans in one of the draughty village halls that typically host audax controls.

#### Hyponyms

* air traffic control
* control tower
* cruise control
* edge control
* flight control
* master control
* mind control
* mission control
* proportional control
* race control

#### Derived terms

* 1ANCP
* 1NCP
* AACC
* AACO
* AADCCS
* ABAC
* ABC
* ABCA
* ABCCC
* AC
* ACA
* ACC
* access control
* access control list
* ACCH
* ACE
* ACL
* adaptive control
* adaptive-control function
* advanced train control system
* AEC
* AGC
* air traffic control
* animal control officer
* anticontrol
* area control center
* arms control
* ARTCC
* ASQC
* ATC
* authority control
* automatic distance control
* AWACS
* BCD
* BCP
* biocontrol
* biological control
* birth control
* birth control glasses
* board of control
* body control module
* border control
* C3CM
* C3ISTAR
* C4ISR
* capital control
* carriage control character
* CC
* CCP
* CDC
* cene
* CHOP
* clan control
* climate control
* CMG
* CNC
* coercive control
* cognitive control
* command and control
* compound control
* control arm
* control booth
* control brief
* control briefs
* control bus
* control car
* control center
* control centre
* control character
* control chart
* control city
* control code
* control column
* control coupling
* control engineering
* control experiment
* control-flow graph
* control freak
* control freakery
* control function
* control gene
* control grid
* control group
* controligarch
* control joint
* control key
* control knickers
* controlless
* controllessness
* control mechanism
* control number
* control of conception
* Contrology
* control order
* control pad
* control panel
* control pants
* control point
* control rod
* control room
* control stick
* control structure
* control surface
* control theory
* control tower
* control unit
* control variable
* control verb
* control wheel
* COSHH
* CP/M
* crawl control
* crowd control
* crowd control barrier
* cruise control
* CTC
* Ctrl-Alt-Delete
* CWS
* DAC
* DACL
* damage control
* DCL
* DCS
* DCV
* diastereocontrol
* DNC
* DPCCH
* dual control
* DVCS
* dyscontrol
* ECB
* ECC
* ECDC
* ECLSS
* ECM
* ECTS
* edge control
* electronic stability control
* enantiocontrol
* ESC
* ETCS
* executive control
* FAC
* face control
* FACP
* FCB
* FCT
* FCV
* feature control frame
* feedforward control
* flight control
* flow control
* GCP
* GFC
* ground control
* ground control point
* gun control
* HACCP
* HDLC
* HQC
* HS-SCCH
* ICMP
* ILPC
* in control
* inversion of control
* JCL
* job control
* knife control
* LACC
* LCBO
* LCCN
* Line of Actual Control
* Line of Control
* LLC
* LOAC
* LOC
* lose control
* MAC
* MAC address
* macrocontrol
* MCO
* MCU
* message control
* MGCC
* milieu control
* mind control
* MOCC
* movement control order
* MVCC
* myocontrol
* NAFDAC
* NCB
* numerical control
* object-control
* OCC
* OCCB
* OCN
* OFAC
* OLPC
* Open Sound Control
* out of control
* parental control
* PCA
* PCB
* PCM
* PDC
* perceptual control theory
* pest control
* photocontrol
* portion control
* positive control
* price control
* procontrol
* PTC
* pussy control
* QA/QC
* QAC
* QCU
* quality control
* radio control
* RBAC
* RCS
* reaction control system
* regiocontrol
* rent control
* reservoir control
* RTC
* SCADA
* SDLC
* self-control
* servocontrol
* slow speed control
* SMC
* social control
* source control
* span of control
* spin control
* statistical process control
* stereocontrol
* stock control
* subcontrol
* subject-control
* superintending control
* tab control
* tactical air control center
* take control
* tank controls
* target control
* task control
* TCA
* TCC
* TCP/IP
* TCS
* TCU
* terminal control area
* thought control
* time control
* time optimal control problem
* timestamp-based concurrency control
* time-varied gain control
* TPC
* TRACON
* Transmission Control Protocol
* TSCA
* TVC
* UAC
* under control
* user control
* VCPI
* VCS
* VCU
* version control
* vibration control
* VISCMA
* VTC
* WWMCCS
* XACML

#### Translations

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

### Further reading

* “control”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
* William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “control”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
* control on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
* Control in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

## Catalan
### Etymology

Borrowed from French contrôle. First attested in 1917.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: (Central) [kunˈtɾɔl]
* IPA: (Balearic, Valencia) [konˈtɾɔl]

### Noun

control m (plural controls)
* control
* check, inspection
* checkpoint
* influence, authority

#### Derived terms

* controlar
* control de qualitat
* telecontrol

### References

* ↑ “control”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2025

### Further reading

* “control” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
* “control” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
* “control” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

## Portuguese
### Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English control. The established pronunciation reflects a widespread mispronunciation of the English word. Doublet of controle and controlo.

### Pronunciation

* (Brazil) IPA: /kõˈtɾɔw/ [kõˈtɾɔʊ̯]
* (Portugal) IPA: /kõˈtɾɔl/ [kõˈtɾɔɫ]
* (Portugal) IPA: /kõˈtɾɔl/ [kõˈtɾɔɫ]
** (Southern Portugal) IPA: /kõˈtɾɔ.li/
* Hyphenation: con‧trol

### Noun

control m (plural controls)
* the control key on a computer keyboard

#### Derived terms

* control C control V

## Romanian
### Etymology

Borrowed from French contrôle.

### Pronunciation

* Audio:(file)

### Noun

control n (plural controale)
* control

#### Declension
## Spanish
### Etymology

Borrowed from French contrôle.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /konˈtɾol/ [kõn̪ˈt̪ɾol]
* Rhymes: -ol
* Syllabification: con‧trol

### Noun

control m (plural controles)
* control, or running of a business
* control of a machine
    Synonyms: control remoto, mando, mando a distancia, telemando
* control or emotional restraint, self-control
* (Latin America) remote control
    Synonyms: control remoto, mando, mando a distancia
* (video games, Latin America) controller, gamepad, joypad
    Synonym: mando
* (medicine) checkup
    Synonym: chequeo

#### Derived terms

* autocontrol
* control de crucero adaptativo (“adaptive cruise control”)
* control de la natalidad, control de natalidad
* control de realización
* control de velocidad (“cruise control”)
* control de versiones
* control remoto
* fuera de control
* prima de control
* puesto de control
* salirse de control (“to get out of control”)
* torre de control

#### Related terms

* controlar

### Further reading

* “control”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10