contain
Americanverb (used with object)
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contains,
present (3rd person singular)
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contained,
past participle, past
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containing
present participle
-
to hold or include within its volume or area.
This glass contains water.
This paddock contains our best horses.
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to be capable of holding; have capacity for.
The room will contain 75 persons safely.
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to have as contents or constituent parts; comprise; include.
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to keep under proper control; restrain.
He could not contain his amusement.
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to prevent or limit the expansion, influence, success, or advance of (a hostile nation, competitor, opposing force, natural disaster, etc.).
to contain an epidemic.
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to succeed in preventing the spread of.
efforts to contain water pollution.
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Mathematics. (of a number) to be a multiple of; be divisible by, without a remainder.
Ten contains five.
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to be equal to.
A quart contains two pints.
verb
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to hold or be capable of holding or including within a fixed limit or area
this contains five pints
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to keep (one's feelings, behaviour, etc) within bounds; restrain
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to consist of; comprise
the book contains three different sections
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military to prevent (enemy forces) from operating beyond a certain level or area
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maths
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to be a multiple of, leaving no remainder
6 contains 2 and 3
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to have as a subset
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Synonym Usage
Contain, accommodate, hold, express the idea that something is so designed that something else can exist or be placed within it. Contain refers to what is actually within a given container. Hold emphasizes the idea of keeping within bounds; it refers also to the greatest amount or number that can be kept within a given container. Accommodate means to contain comfortably or conveniently, or to meet the needs of a certain number. A passenger plane that accommodates 50 passengers may be able to hold 60, but at a given time may contain only 30.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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containsimple
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containssimple
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have containedperfect
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has containedperfect
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am containingprogressive
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are containingprogressive
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is containingprogressive
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have been containingperfect progressive
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has been containingperfect progressive
Past
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containedsimple
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had containedperfect
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was containingprogressive
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were containingprogressive
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had been containingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of contain
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English conte(y)nen, from Anglo-French contener, Old French contenir, from Latin continēre, equivalent to con- con- + -tinēre, verb suffix of tenēre “to hold” ( see tenet)
Explanation
The verb contain has many shades of meaning but it often describes something that's held back or held in by something. Kids on the last day of school may find it hard to contain their glee when summer officially starts. Picture Times Square on New Year's Eve. People can barely contain — or hold back — their excitement at being there. They clutch cups that contain — or hold — hot drinks that help them stay warm. The police set up barriers to contain — or restrain — the crowd to keep everyone under control. The next morning, the heaps of trash on the street will contain — or include — streamers, party hats, and cups.
Vocabulary lists containing contain
The SAT: Multiple-Meaning Words, List 4
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PARCC: Language of the Test (Grade 11)
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The New SAT: Multiple-Meaning Words
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
France has been struggling to contain its debt, with the budget deficit still well above the eurozone's three-percent ceiling.
From Barron's ● Oct. 1, 2026
Galaxies can contain hundreds of billions of stars, but every one of those stars begins with cold, dense gas.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 30, 2026
Several social media users in the country have also expressed concerns about eating the game meat amid an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease, which has prompted authorities to impose measures to contain its spread.
From BBC ● Sep. 30, 2026
Natural-fiber clothing also may contain chemicals that weren’t added deliberately.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 24, 2026
Finally, she couldn’t contain herself any longer and squealed, “Isn’t it beautiful?”
From Anya and the Nightingale by Sofiya Pasternack
Each one contains their person's medical needs and individual calendar and is programmed to tell users when it's time to eat or play bingo or watch their favourite television show.
From BBC ● Oct. 1, 2026
The contract is for an initial term of five years and contains two additional option years, the company added.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 1, 2026
Charter Amendment PL is a bit confusing, but at its core it contains five proposals that would streamline and speed up certain L.A.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026
Black mulberry fruit, meanwhile, contains high levels of anthocyanins and other phenolic compounds, as well as polysaccharides.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 30, 2026
I would like to find something that contains salt.
From "A Rover's Story" by Jasmine Warga
His incredible work went largely unreported for nearly 50 years - until his wife found a scrapbook in their loft, which contained names of the 669 children, who were mostly Jewish, that he had rescued.
From BBC ● Oct. 1, 2026
The vans they drove to the site contained black barrels containing fuel, the police said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 30, 2026
These samples contained more potassium than those used previously and came from material released during the earliest part of the eruption.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 30, 2026
Criminal "interest has shifted away from the phone itself, its physical value, to the data contained in those devices," he told AFP.
From Barron's ● Sep. 29, 2026
It was too dim to see inside of them, but I imagined they contained eyeballs, blood, snakes, or roaches.
From "Rump: The (Fairly) True Story of Rumpelstilskin" by Liesl Shurtliff
DMZ, a buffer strip containing the Military Demarcation Line which marks the land border between the two Koreas.
From BBC ● Sep. 30, 2026
The vans they drove to the site contained black barrels containing fuel, the police said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 30, 2026
Lagarde said the ECB remains on a “middle path” to balance containing inflation against the risk of weighing too heavily on economic growth.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 28, 2026
In the youngest systems, where material is still falling onto the central star, the researchers detected powerful jets along with broad winds containing both molecular and atomic gas.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 28, 2026
At Jabl Sahaba in Sudan, a 12,000-year-old cemetery containing fifty-nine skeletons was discovered.
From "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" by Yuval Noah Harari
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
