Wiktionary

compensate

English

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Etymology

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Borrowed from Latin compensatus, past participle of compensare (“to weight together one thing against another, balance, make good, later also shorten, spare”), from com- (“together”) + pensare (“to weight”).

Pronunciation

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Verb

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compensate (third-person singular simple present compensates, present participle compensating, simple past and past participle compensated)

  1. To do (something good) after (something bad) happens
  2. To pay or reward someone in exchange for work done or some other consideration.
    It is hard work, but they will compensate you well for it.
  3. (transitive, intransitive) To make up for; to do something in place of something else; to correct, satisfy; to reach an agreement such that the scales are literally or (metaphorically) balanced; to equalize or make even.
    Synonym: make up
    His loud voice cannot compensate for a lack of personality.
    To compensate me for his tree landing on my shed, my neighbor paved my driveway.
    • 1627 (indicated as 1626), Francis [Bacon], “(please specify the page, or |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], London: […] William Rawley […]; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […], →OCLC:
      The length of the night and the dews thereof do compensate the heat of the day.
    • 1718, Mat[thew] Prior, “Solomon on the Vanity of the World. A Poem in Three Books.”, in Poems on Several Occasions, London: […] Jacob Tonson […], and John Barber […], →OCLC, (please specify the page):
      , Preface
      The pleasures of life do not compensate the miseries.
  4. To adjust or adapt to a change, often a harm or deprivation.
    I don't like driving that old car because it always steers a little to the left so I'm forever compensating for that when I drive it. Trust me, it gets annoying real fast.
    To compensate for his broken leg, Gary uses crutches.

Conjugation

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Conjugation of compensate
infinitive (to) compensate
present tense past tense
1st-person singular compensate compensated
2nd-person singular compensate, compensatest† compensated, compensatedst†
3rd-person singular compensates, compensateth† compensated
plural compensate
subjunctive compensate compensated
imperative compensate —
participles compensating compensated

†Archaic or obsolete.

Synonyms

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Derived terms

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Translations

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Further reading

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Italian

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Etymology 1

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Verb

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compensate

  1. inflection of compensare:
    1. second-person plural present indicative
    2. second-person plural imperative

Etymology 2

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Participle

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compensate f pl

  1. feminine plural of compensato

Latin

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Verb

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compēnsāte

  1. second-person plural present active imperative of compēnsō

Spanish

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Verb

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compensate

  1. second-person singular voseo imperative of compensar combined with te
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