compendium
Americannoun
-
a brief treatment or account of a subject, especially an extensive subject; concise treatise.
a compendium of medicine.
- Synonyms:
- conspectus, digest, survey
-
a summary, epitome, or abridgment.
-
a full list or inventory.
a compendium of their complaints.
noun
-
a book containing a collection of useful hints
-
a selection, esp of different games or other objects in one container
-
a concise but comprehensive summary of a larger work
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of compendium
1575–85; < Latin: gain, saving, shortcut, abridgment, equivalent to com- com- + pend- (stem of pendere to cause to hang down, weigh) + -ium -ium
Explanation
When you search an online encyclopedia, you are searching a compendium of information on just about everything. A compendium is a comprehensive collection of something. You can also use the word compendium to describe a collection of written works. If you gather all of the anecdotes your parents and grandparents have told you into a book, you'll have created a compendium of family stories. The plural of compendium is either compendiums or compendia.
Vocabulary lists containing compendium
The Lightning Thief
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Born a Crime
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It's Trevor Noah: Born a Crime
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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.
“Bury Me Already” throws a sudden cross-country move, a pregnancy, a pandemic and a few other life-changing events into the mix in her latest compendium of long-form stories, stick-figure sketches, and three-panel gags.
From Salon • Jun. 27, 2026
County Superior Court Judge Charlaine Olmedo also warned Berk that if she does push for the immediate preliminary hearing, she may not have access to the entire compendium of evidence before May 1.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 23, 2026
Our critic said that most of the show “is devoted to works made between 1951 and 1966, offering a compendium of wide-ranging approaches and occasional surprises.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 19, 2026
About 65,000 people were in ICE detention as of 30 November 2025, according to data obtained by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse's immigration project, a compendium of government data from Syracuse University.
From BBC • Jan. 9, 2026
One day I hope to write a compendium of all my cures, including those Elnora taught me.
From "Ophelia" by Lisa Klein
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.
