compendium

[ kuhm-pen-dee-uhm ]

noun

, plural com·pen·di·ums, com·pen·di·a [k, uh, m-, pen, -dee-, uh].

1. a brief treatment or account of a subject, especially an extensive subject; concise treatise:

   a compendium of medicine.

   Synonyms: conspectus, digest, survey

2. a summary, epitome, or abridgment.
3. a full list or inventory:

   a compendium of their complaints.

compendium

/ kəmˈpɛndɪəm /

noun

1. a book containing a collection of useful hints
2. a selection, esp of different games or other objects in one container
3. a concise but comprehensive summary of a larger work

Word History and Origins

Origin of compendium¹

1575–85; < Latin: gain, saving, shortcut, abridgment, equivalent to com- com- + pend- (stem of pendere to cause to hang down, weigh) + -ium -ium

Word History and Origins

Origin of compendium¹

C16: from Latin: a saving, literally: something weighed, from pendere to weigh

Example Sentences

The compendium that Sorensen gave Kennedy contains about 150 speeches.

From Washington Post

Similar in technique to Fingrutd’s video but more politically pointed, Carlos Franco’s “” is a feverish compendium of outrages against Puerto Rico.

From Washington Post

To help, FiveThirtyEight is compiling The Greatness Files, a compendium of, well, what makes great athletes great.

From FiveThirtyEight

To learn everything about how to become a poll worker in your state, the EAC has a comprehensive compendium with all the details.

From Popular-Science

Ultimately, though, it feels like more of a compendium piece than a fully formed documentary.

From The Daily Beast

They Came Together is a compendium of every romcom cliché known to man.

From The Daily Beast

This week, a memoir of liberation, a biography of Ariel Sharon, and a comprehensive compendium from a master poet.

From The Daily Beast

The Scarfe cartoon would comfortably fit in any compendium of such grotesqueries.

From The Daily Beast

(Tobin contents himself with offering one link in his entire piece, which takes you a compendium of all of Steinfels's work).

From The Daily Beast

His compendium of Galen was the text-book of medicine in the West for many centuries.

From Project Gutenberg

A compendium would be the bread-fruit, within reach, and easily plucked.

From Project Gutenberg

The present work is not a compendium of astronomy or an outline course of popular reading in that science.

From Project Gutenberg

Below will be found a compendium of Virginia conventions, with the names of the delegates returned by Loudoun County.

From Project Gutenberg

This compendium, together with the Compendium of Metaphysics, was republished at Strassburg in 1722.

From Project Gutenberg