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Compass vs Degree - What's the difference?

compass | degree | Related terms |

As nouns the difference between compass and degree

is that compass is a magnetic or electronic device used to determine the cardinal directions (usually magnetic or true north) while degree is a step on a set of stairs; the rung of a ladder.

As a verb compass

is to surround; to encircle; to environ; to stretch round.

As an adverb compass

is in a circuit; round about.

compass

English

(wikipedia compass)

Noun

(es)
  • A magnetic or electronic device used to determine the cardinal directions (usually magnetic or true north).
  • * John Locke
    • He that first discovered the use of the compass did more for the supplying and increase of useful commodities than those who built workhouses.
  • A pair of compasses (a device used to draw an arc or circle).
  • * Jonathan Swift
    • to fix one foot of their compass wherever they please
  • (music) The range of notes of a musical instrument or voice.
  • * Shakespeare
    • You would sound me from my lowest note to the top of my compass .
  • (obsolete) A space within limits; area.
  • * 1763 , M. Le Page Du Pratz, History of Louisiana (PG), page 47:
    • In going up the Missisippi [sic] , we meet with nothing remarkable before we come to the Detour aux Anglois, the English Reach: in that part the river takes a large compass .
  • * Addison
    • Their wisdom lies in a very narrow compass .
  • * 1913 ,
    • Clara thought she had never seen him look so small and mean. He was as if trying to get himself into the smallest possible compass .
  • (obsolete) An enclosing limit; boundary; circumference.
    • within the compass of an encircling wall
  • Moderate bounds, limits of truth; moderation; due limits; used with within .
  • * Sir J. Davies
    • In two hundred years before (I speak within compass ), no such commission had been executed.
  • Scope.
  • * Wordsworth
    • the compass of his argument
  • * 1748 , David Hume, Enquiries concerning the human understanding and concerning the principles of moral , Oxford University Press (1973), section 8:
    • There is a truth and falsehood in all propositions on this subject, and a truth and falsehood, which lie not beyond the compass of human understanding.
  • * 1844 , (Edgar Allan Poe),
    • How very commonly we hear it remarked that such and such thoughts are beyond the compass of words! I do not believe that any thought, properly so called, is out of the reach of language.
  • (obsolete) A passing round; circuit; circuitous course.
  • * Bible, 2 Kings iii. 9
    • They fetched a compass of seven days' journey.
  • * Shakespeare
    • This day I breathed first; time is come round, / And where I did begin, there shall I end; / My life is run his compass .

    Synonyms

    * (magnetic direction finder) magnetic compass * (device used to draw circular curves) pair of compasses

    Hyponyms

    * (pair of compasses) beam compass

    Derived terms

    * beam compass * bow compass * compass card * compass error * compass needle * compass plant * compass point * compass rose * compass swing * gyrocompass * magnetic compass * mariner's compass * moral compass * pair of compasses * radio compass * telltale compass (pair of compasses) * beam compass

    Verb

    (es)
  • To surround; to encircle; to environ; to stretch round.
  • * 1610 , , by (William Shakespeare), act 5 scene 1
    • Now all the blessings
    Of a glad father compass thee about!
  • To go about or round entirely; to traverse.
  • (dated) To accomplish; to reach; to achieve; to obtain.
  • * 1763 , Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emilius; or, an essay on education , translated by M. Nugent, page 117:
    • [...] they never find ways sufficient to compass that end.
  • * 1816 , Catholicon: or, the Christian Philosopher , volume 3, from July to December 1816, page 56:
    • [...] to settle the end of our action or disputation; and then to take fit and effectual means to compass that end.
  • * 1857 , Gilbert Burnet, Bishop Burnet's History of His Own Time: from the Restoration of King Charles the Second to the Treaty of Peace at Utrecht in the Reign of Queen Anne , page 657:
    • [...] and was an artful flatterer, when that was necessary to compass his end, in which generally he was successful.
  • * 1921 November 23, The New Republic , volume 28, number 364, page 2:
    • The immediate problem is how to compass that end: by the seizure of territory or by the cultivation of the goodwill of the people whose business she seeks.
  • (dated) To plot; to scheme (against someone).
  • * 1600', ''The Arraignment and Judgement of Captain Thomas Lee'', published in '''1809 , by R. Bagshaw, in ''Cobbett's Complete Collection of State Trials , volume 1, page 1403–04:
    • That he plotted and compassed to raise Sedition and Rebellion [...]
  • * 1794' November 1, ''Speech of Mr. Erskine in Behalf of Hardy'', published in '''1884 , by Chauncey Allen Goodrich, in ''Select British Eloquence , page 719:
    • But it went beyond it by the loose construction of compassing to depose the King, [...]
  • * 1915 , The Wireless Age , volume 2, page 580:
    • The Bavarian felt a mad wave of desire for her sweep over him. What scheme wouldn't he compass to mould that girl to his wishes.

    Quotations

    * *: And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia.

    Synonyms

    * (surround) encircle, environ, surround * (go about or around entirely) cover, traverse * (accomplish) accomplish, achieve, attain, gain, get to, reach * conspire, plot, scheme

    Adverb

    (en adverb)
  • (obsolete) In a circuit; round about.
  • * 1658 , (w), Urne-Burial , Penguin (2005), ISBN 9780141023915, page 9:
    • Near the same plot of ground, for about six yards compasse were digged up coals and incinerated substances,

    References

    * *

    degree

    English

    (wikipedia degree)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (obsolete, outside, heraldry) A step on a set of stairs; the rung of a ladder.
  • An individual step, or stage, in any process or scale of values.
  • A stage of rank or privilege; social standing.
  • * 1526 , (William Tyndale), trans. Bible , Luke XX:
    • Master, we knowe that thou sayest, and teachest ryght, nether considerest thou eny mannes degre , but techest the waye of god truely.
  • (genealogy) A ‘step’ in genealogical descent.
  • * 2002 , , The Great Nation , Penguin 2003, page 140:
    • Louis created the École militaire in Paris in 1751, in which 500 scholarships were designated for noblemen able to prove four degrees of noble status.
  • * 1851 , (Herman Melville), (Moby-Dick) :
    • If they but knew it, almost all men in their degree , some time or other, cherish very nearly the same feelings towards the ocean with me.
  • The amount that an entity possesses a certain property; relative intensity, extent.
  • *
    • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=1 , passage=In the old days, to my commonplace and unobserving mind, he gave no evidences of genius whatsoever. He never read me any of his manuscripts, […], and therefore my lack of detection of his promise may in some degree be pardoned.}}
  • A stage of proficiency or qualification in a course of study, now especially an award bestowed by a university or, in some countries, a college, as a certification of academic achievement. (In the United States, can include secondary schools.)
  • (geometry) A unit of measurement of angle equal to 1/360 of a circle's circumference.
  • (physics) A unit of measurement of temperature on any of several scales, such as Celsius or Fahrenheit.
  • (mathematics) The sum of the exponents of a term; the order of a polynomial.
  • (graph theory) The number of edges that a vertex takes part in; a valency.
  • (surveying) The curvature of a circular arc, expressed as the angle subtended by a fixed length of arc or chord.

    • Synonyms

    * (unit of angle) * (unit of temperature)

    Derived terms

    * academic degree * advanced degree * bachelor's degree * degree Celsius * degree centigrade * degree days * degree of frost * degree Fahrenheit * first degree burn * master's degree * second degree burn

    Coordinate terms

    * (l)

    Usage notes

    * A person who is engaged in a course of study leading to the earning of a degree can be described (in the present progressive tense) as "doing a degree" in British English, and as "getting a degree" in American English. For example, in American English, "She is currently getting''' her master's degree at State University."'' In British English, ''"I am still confused about when to use 'an' instead of 'a'. Is it an hour or a hour, and if someone is '''doing a master's degree in arts, is it an MA or a MA?" ( Ask Oxford.Com - Ask the Experts - Frequently Asked Questions (Grammar)).

    Statistics

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