compact disc

American  

noun

• compact discs
  plural

1. a type of compact disk developed to store and play back music.

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compact disc British  

/ ˈkɒmpækt /

noun

1. Abbreviation: CD, CAD. Also called: compact audio disc. a small digital audio disc on which sound is recorded as a series of metallic pits enclosed in PVC; the disc is spun by the compact disc player and read by an optical laser system

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• compact discs
  plural

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

compact disc

Virtual marketplaces buried it, the same way audio and visual streaming services displaced the DVD and the compact disc.

From Slate ● Jul. 7, 2026

June, now 63, said her home office at the time had a dial-up modem, trading software downloaded from a compact disc and a dodgy internet connection.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 10, 2026

Additionally, the company said there are currently more artists earning over $100,000 a year from Spotify alone than were getting stocked on shelves at the height of the compact disc era.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 28, 2026

According to IIT’s mathematical definition of information, Aaronson pointed out, a compact disc player running error-correction codes can be far more conscious than a human being.

From Scientific American ● Jun. 26, 2023

P. more compact, disc black then grey, edge white.

From European Fungus Flora: Agaricaceae by George Massee

Related Words

• album
• disk