compendium
Americannoun
plural
compendiums, compendia-
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
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.
Most of “The Women” is devoted to works made between 1951 and 1966, offering a compendium of wide-ranging approaches and occasional surprises.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 28, 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. 8, 2026
Corporate earnings calls provide a mixed picture similar to the Fed’s Beige Book, the compendium of anecdotes from the 12 district banks prepared for the Oct. 28-29 Federal Open Market Committee meeting, Boockvar says.
From Barron's • Oct. 17, 2025
One of the ongoing hallmarks of the Lennon estate’s legacy releases, the accompanying compendium, compiled by Simon Hilton, is simply magnificent.
From Salon • Oct. 8, 2025
A full compendium of those laws would run more than three thousand pages and weigh approximately ten pounds, but the general thrust of it should be easy enough for any American to understand.
From "Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood" by Trevor Noah
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.
