compare
Americanverb (used with object)
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compares,
present (3rd person singular)
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compared,
past participle, past
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comparing
present participle
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to examine (two or more objects, ideas, people, etc.) in order to note similarities and differences.
If you compare these three pieces of cloth, you'll see they're all similar in weight.
It's difficult to directly compare the governments of two very different nations.
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to consider or describe as similar; liken.
“Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?”
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Grammar. to form or display the degrees of comparison of (an adjective or adverb).
verb (used without object)
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compares,
present (3rd person singular)
-
compared,
past participle, past
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comparing
present participle
-
to be worthy of comparison; be held equal.
Dekker's plays cannot compare with Shakespeare's.
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to appear in a similar standing.
His recital certainly compares with the one he gave last year.
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to differ in quality or accomplishment as specified.
Their development compares poorly with that of neighbor nations.
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Can we all agree that most people want fair treatment and to compare favorably with others?
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to make a comparison.
The only way we can say which product is better is to compare.
noun
idioms
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compare apples to / with / and apples, to compare things that are similar to each other in a basic or fundamental way.
Let’s compare apples to apples and look at the Professional package versus the Plus package.
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compare apples and / with / to oranges, to compare things that are fundamentally different from each other, usually used to suggest that the things cannot or should not be directly compared.
Comparing per pupil costs in public schools to tuition costs in private schools is comparing apples and oranges.
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compared to / with, considered in relation to; contrasted with.
The report investigated whether electric buses were cost-effective compared to traditional diesel buses.
Compared with other video editing software, our program offers many more features.
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compare and contrast. see compare and contrast.
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compare notes. note.
verb
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to regard or represent as analogous or similar; liken
the general has been compared to Napoleon
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to examine in order to observe resemblances or differences
to compare rum with gin
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to be of the same or similar quality or value
gin compares with rum in alcoholic content
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(intr) to bear a specified relation of quality or value when examined
this car compares badly with the other
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to correspond to
profits were £3.2 million. This compares with £2.6 million last year
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(tr) grammar to give the positive, comparative, and superlative forms of (an adjective)
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archaic (intr) to compete or vie
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to exchange opinions
noun
Usage
The traditional rule about which preposition to use after compare states that compare should be followed by to when it points out likenesses or similarities between two apparently dissimilar persons or things: She compared his handwriting to knotted string. Compare should be followed by with, the rule says, when it points out similarities or differences between two entities of the same general class: The critic compared the paintings in the exhibit with magazine photographs. This rule is by no means always observed, however, even in formal speech and writing. The usual practice is to employ to for likenesses between members of different classes: A language may be compared to a living organism. But when the comparison is between members of the same category, both to and with are used: The article compares the Chicago of today with (or to ) the Chicago of the 1890s. Following the past participle compared, either to or with is used regardless of whether differences or similarities are stressed or whether the things compared belong to the same or different classes: Compared with (or to ) the streets of 18th-century London, New York's streets are models of cleanliness and order.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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comparernoun
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intercompareverb (used with object)
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precompareverb (used with object)
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recompareverb (used with object)
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uncomparedadjective
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well-comparedadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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comparesimple
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comparessimple
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have comparedperfect
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has comparedperfect
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am comparingprogressive
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are comparingprogressive
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is comparingprogressive
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have been comparingperfect progressive
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has been comparingperfect progressive
Past
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comparedsimple
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had comparedperfect
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was comparingprogressive
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were comparingprogressive
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had been comparingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of compare
First recorded in 1375–1425; late Middle English comparen, from Latin comparāre “to place together, match,” verb derivative of compar “alike, matching” ( see com-, par 1); replacing Middle English comperen, from Old French comperer, from Latin
Explanation
To compare is to look at two things and see how they are similar and different. People compare all the time. If you look at two products and compare prices, you're looking for the better bargain. It is hard to compare who was the better athlete, Michael Jordan or Billie Jean King, because they played different sports. At a museum, you can compare different paintings. If you like your math teacher better than your history teacher, you're comparing the two. If a TV shows is bad, you could say "it doesn't compare" to your favorite show.
Vocabulary lists containing compare
The Language of Standardized Tests, List 1
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Jim Burke's Academic Vocabulary List
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Academic Vocabulary: Core Tier 2 Words, List 1
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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:
On the surface, Jackson's numbers at Bayern Munich last season compare favourably with those of Watkins at Villa.
From BBC ● Aug. 28, 2026
The experiment shows that burying cotton underwear can offer a simple but useful way to compare biological activity and fertility in different soils.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 28, 2026
The RKI models heat-related mortality using statistical methods that compare deaths during summer weeks with and without heatwaves.
From Barron's ● Aug. 27, 2026
WSJ | Buy Side: See the cheapest pet insurance options and how their costs compare.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 26, 2026
I didn’t know it was crappy at the time, because I didn’t have our better apartment to compare it to yet.
From "It’s Kind of a Funny Story" by Ned Vizzini
"I use the meteorological calendar when putting current conditions into context - whether that's comparing this summer's temperatures with a long-term average, or looking at how a season compares with previous years."
From BBC ● Aug. 31, 2026
Don Henley compares the Eagles’ role there to the organist at a silent movie.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 27, 2026
That compares with 55 ships detected in June and 30 in May, and 58 in July last year.
From Barron's ● Aug. 27, 2026
The chart below compares Nvidia’s implied move ahead of its earnings reports with how its stock performed in the following session.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 25, 2026
But none of it compares to Orléans's royal palace.
From "The Belles" by Dhonielle Clayton
India’s crude-oil import bill jumped 56% to $63.37 billion for the April-July compared to the same period a year earlier, according to data from the oil ministry.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 31, 2026
Putting ethnicity aside, risk was also more than twice as high for children living in the most deprived areas compared with the least deprived.
From BBC ● Aug. 31, 2026
That compared with revised 8.6% growth in the previous quarter and exceeded the 7.5% median forecast in a Wall Street Journal poll of economists.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 31, 2026
Sport England figures said that 47% of children and young people in the most deprived areas could swim 25 metres, compared with 69% in the least deprived areas.
From BBC ● Aug. 31, 2026
They had more losers than winners, but their losses, the cost of the options, had been trivial compared to their gains.
From "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis
Critics, including Raman, said Bass was directly comparing homeless encampments to street vendors.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 27, 2026
“Everybody has been comparing this to Big Tech’s ‘Big Tobacco moment,’” Rob Lalka, a professor at Tulane University’s Freeman School of Business, told MarketWatch.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 26, 2026
“If we’re comparing this to large language models, this is like GPT-2,” he adds.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026
"By comparing ecological ways of life for extinct and modern species, we can understand how patterns of adaptive evolution have changed through time and what factors shaped the modern biosphere."
From Science Daily ● Aug. 21, 2026
But it was chiefly intimidating because I was comparing my own writing to Mann’s.
From "Bad Boy" by Walter Dean Myers
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.
