The difference between Compact and Compress

When used as nouns, compact means an agreement or contract, whereas compress means a multiply folded piece of cloth, a pouch of ice etc., used to apply to a patient's skin, cover the dressing of wounds, and placed with the aid of a bandage to apply pressure on an injury.

When used as verbs, compact means to make more dense, whereas compress means to make smaller.


Compact is also adjective with the meaning: closely packed, i.e. packing much in a small space.

check bellow for the other definitions of Compact and Compress

  1. Compact as a noun:

    An agreement or contract.

  1. Compact as an adjective:

    Closely packed, i.e. packing much in a small space.

  2. Compact as an adjective:

    Having all necessary features fitting neatly into a small space.

    Examples:

    "a compact laptop computer"

  3. Compact as an adjective (mathematics, uncomparable, of a set in an Euclidean space):

    Closed and bounded.

    Examples:

    "A set S of real numbers is called compact if every sequence in S has a subsequence that converges to an element again contained in S."

  4. Compact as an adjective (topology, uncomparable, of a set):

    Such that every open cover of the given set has a finite subcover.

  5. Compact as an adjective:

    Brief; close; pithy; not diffuse; not verbose.

    Examples:

    "a compact discourse"

  6. Compact as an adjective (obsolete):

    Joined or held together; leagued; confederated.

  7. Compact as an adjective (obsolete):

    Composed or made; with of.

  1. Compact as a noun:

    A small, slim folding case, often featuring a mirror, powder and a powderpuff; that fits into a woman's purse or handbag, or that slips into one's pocket.

  2. Compact as a noun:

    A broadsheet newspaper published in the size of a tabloid but keeping its non-sensational style.

  1. Compact as a verb (transitive):

    To make more dense; to compress.

  2. Compact as a verb:

    To unite or connect firmly, as in a system.

  1. Compress as a verb (transitive):

    To make smaller; to press or squeeze together, or to make something occupy a smaller space or volume.

    Examples:

    "The force required to compress a spring varies linearly with the displacement."

  2. Compress as a verb (intransitive):

    To be pressed together or folded by compression into a more economic, easier format.

    Examples:

    "Our new model compresses easily, ideal for storage and travel"

  3. Compress as a verb (transitive):

    To condense into a more economic, easier format.

    Examples:

    "This chart compresses the entire audit report into a few lines on a single diagram."

  4. Compress as a verb (transitive):

    To abridge.

    Examples:

    "If you try to compress the entire book into a three-sentence summary, you will lose a lot of information."

  5. Compress as a verb (technology, transitive):

    To make digital information smaller by encoding it using fewer bits.

  6. Compress as a verb (obsolete):

    To embrace sexually.

    Examples:

    "rfquotek Alexander Pope"

  1. Compress as a noun:

    A multiply folded piece of cloth, a pouch of ice etc., used to apply to a patient's skin, cover the dressing of wounds, and placed with the aid of a bandage to apply pressure on an injury.

    Examples:

    "He held a cold compress over the sprain."

  2. Compress as a noun:

    A machine for compressing