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Pithy vs Compact - What's the difference?

pithy | compact | Related terms |

As adjectives the difference between pithy and compact

is that pithy is concise and meaningful while compact is closely packed, i.e. packing much in a small space.

As a noun compact is

an agreement or contract.

As a verb compact is

to make more dense; to compress.

pithy

English

Adjective

(er)
  • Concise and meaningful.
  • * 1825 , ,
  • Mr. Lamb, on the contrary, being "native to the manner here," though he too has borrowed from previous sources, instead of availing himself of the most popular and admired, has groped out his way, and made his most successful researches among the more obscure and intricate, though certainly not the least pithy or pleasant of our writers.
  • * 1873 April 25, (editor), ''The Chemical News ,
  • The following passage, which is exquisitely pithy and exquisitely modest, winds up the description:- "In this apparatus there is nothing new but its simplicity and thorough trustworthiness."
  • * 1876 , ,
  • IT was a pithy' saying that of Lorenzo de' Medici, and true as ' pithy , that we are enjoined to forgive our enemies, but nowhere are we told that we should forgive our friends.
  • Of, like, or abounding in pith.
  • * 1863 , ,
  • Must we know the torrid zone only through travelled bananas, plucked too soon and pithy ? or by bottled anacondas? or by the tarry-flavored slang of forecastle-bred paroquets?
  • * 1910 , , Suggestions and Reminders I: For the North, April,
  • Parsnip .—Dig the roots before they grow and become soft and pithy .
  • * 1911 , ,
  • To summarize the characters of a true mushroom - it grows only in pastures; it is of small size, dry, and with unchangeable flesh; the cap has a frill; the gills are free from the stem, the spores brown-black or deep purple-black in colour, and the stem solid or slightly pithy .

    Synonyms

    * (brief and to the point) terse, concise, laconic, succinct

    compact

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An agreement or contract.
  • Synonyms
    * agreement, contract, pact, treaty

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl), from (etyl) .

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Closely packed, i.e. packing much in a small space.
  • * Isaac Newton
  • glass, crystal, gems, and other compact bodies
  • Having all necessary features fitting neatly into a small space.
  • a compact laptop computer
  • (mathematics, uncomparable, of a set in an Euclidean space) Closed and bounded.
  • 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.
  • (topology, uncomparable, of a set) Such that every open cover of the given set has a finite subcover.
  • Brief; close; pithy; not diffuse; not verbose.
  • a compact discourse
  • (obsolete) Joined or held together; leagued; confederated.
  • * Shakespeare
  • compact with her that's gone
  • * Peacham
  • a pipe of seven reeds, compact with wax together
  • (obsolete) Composed or made; with of .
  • * Milton
  • A wandering fire, / Compact of unctuous vapour.
    Synonyms
    * (closely packed) concentrated, dense, serried, solid, thick, tight
    Derived terms
    * compact car * compact disc * locally compact

    Noun

    (en 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 ones pocket.
  • A broadsheet newspaper published in the size of a tabloid but keeping its non-sensational style.
  • * 2012 , BBC News: Dundee Courier makes move to compact [http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-16576612]:
  • The Dundee Courier has announced the newspaper will be relaunching as a compact later this week. Editor Richard Neville said a "brighter, bolder" paper would appear from Saturday, shrunk from broadsheet to tabloid size.

    See also

    *

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To make more dense; to compress.
  • * '>citation
  • To unite or connect firmly, as in a system.
  • * Bible, Eph. iv. 16
  • The whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth.
    Synonyms
    * (make more dense) compress, condense

    Anagrams

    * English heteronyms ----