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PlainSpell

compare

/kəmˈpɛɚ/verb, noun

compare is spelled C-O-M-P-A-R-E. The wrong spelling people search most is compair: about 160 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 48 of all searches for the word. Compare is a verb meaning “To assess the similarities and differences between two or more things [“to compare X with Y”]. Having made…”.

How many letters and syllables are in compare?

Letters7: C-O-M-P-A-R-E
Syllables2 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing28 times per million words; the 3,288th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searched2; the most searched, compair, about 160 Bing searches a month (all of them)
Rhymes with

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How do you spell compare?

Compare is spelled C-O-M-P-A-R-E. 2 wrong spellings are searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 34 of the searches for compare in either form.

comparethe right spelling7,480 searches a month
compairi in place of r, r in place of e160 searches a month
comarea missing p70 searches a month

Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.

How common is compare?

Compare appears 28 times per million words in written English, the 3,288th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce compare?

  • US /kəmˈpɛɚ/
  • US [kəmˈpɛɚ]
  • US [kəmˈpɛɹ]

Compare has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-compare.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with compare?

The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as compare from its last stressed vowel (/ɛəɹ/):

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of compare

  • compares present, singular, he/she/it, plural
  • comparing participle, present
  • compared participle, past, singular, he/she/it, plural
  • cp.
  • comp.
  • cmp

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does compare mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

verb

  1. 1

    To assess the similarities and differences between two or more things [“to compare X with Y”]. Having made the comparison of X with Y, one might have found it similar to Y or different from Y.

    Compare the tiger's coloration with that of the zebra.

  2. 2

    To declare two things to be similar in some respect [“to compare X to Y”].

    Astronomers have compared comets to dirty snowballs.

  3. 3

    To form the three degrees of comparison of (an adjective).

    We compare “good” as “good”, “better”, “best”.

  4. 4

    To be similar (often used in the negative).

    A sapling and a fully-grown oak tree do not compare.

  5. 5

    obsoleteTo get; to obtain.

noun

  1. 1

    Comparison.

  2. 2

    An instruction or command that compares two values or states.

  3. 3

    obsoleteIllustration by comparison; simile.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you abbreviate compare?

Wiktionary records 3 abbreviations of compare: comp., cp, cp..

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Compare in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchcomparer (to assess the similarities between two things…)
Germanvergleichen, komparieren (to assess the similarities between two things…), steigern (to form the three degrees of comparison of), übereinstimmen (to be similar)
Portuguesecomparar (to assess the similarities between two things…)
Spanishcomparar, parangonar, equiparar, cotejar, paragonar, carear (to assess the similarities between two things…)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does compare come from?

From Middle English comparen, from Old French comparer, from Latin comparare (“to prepare, procure”), from compar (“like or equal to another”), from com- + par (“equal”). Displaced native Old English metan (“to compare,” also “to measure”).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after compare