compendium
compendium Lexical Profile
compendium Game Scores & Validity
• noun
A concise yet comprehensive collection of detailed information about a particular subject, especially in a book or other publication.
"The newly published volume serves as an invaluable compendium of medicinal plants native to South America."
A brief summary or abridgment of a larger work or field of knowledge.
"The professor distributed a useful compendium of the semester's key legal cases before the final examination."
British A boxed set containing an assortment of different board and table games, such as chess, draughts, backgammon, and ludo.
"On rainy afternoons at the cottage, the children would bring out the old wooden games compendium."
Word Nuance & Usage
Both the English plural "compendiums" and the Latinate plural "compendia" are standard, with "compendia" preferred in formal academic writing.
• Rhymes for compendium
• Nearby Words
Word Origin & Etymology
Borrowed in the late 16th century from Latin compendium, meaning "a saving, profit, or shortcut," derived from compendere ("to weigh together"), originally referring to what is saved when weighing goods.