compass

1. 1.

   bring about; accomplish

   “This writer attempts more than his talents can compass”

   Broaderachieve

   archaism

2. 2.

   travel around, either by plane or ship

   “We compassed the earth”

   Synonymscircumnavigate

   Broadercircle
3. 3.

   get the meaning of something

   “Do you comprehend the meaning of this letter?”

   Synonymsgrokget the picturecomprehendsavvydiggraspapprehend

   Broaderunderstand

   Narrowerfigurecatch onintuitdigest

Other forms of compass

plural

compasses·

past tense

compassed·

present participle

compassing·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about compass

What does compass mean?

compass means "navigational instrument for finding directions". That is the primary sense; the word has 7 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in compass?

compass has 2 syllables: com-pass. The stress falls on "com". In IPA it is /ˈkʌmpəs/.

What is another word for compass?

Close synonyms include scope, range, reach, orbit, ambit. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is compass a common word?

compass is banded "Familiar" — widely understood, used when the subject calls for it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.

What rhymes with compass?

2 words rhyme with compass. Rhymes are matched on the phonemes from the last stressed vowel onward, which is the definition a reader has in their head.