| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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| compensate |
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| SYLLABICATION: | com·pen·sate |
| PRONUNCIATION: |  k m p n-s t |
| VERB: | Inflected forms: com·pen·sat·ed, com·pen·sat·ing, com·pen·sates
| | TRANSITIVE VERB: | 1. To offset; counterbalance. 2. To make satisfactory payment or reparation to; recompense or reimburse: Management compensated us for the time we worked. 3. To stabilize the purchasing power of (a monetary unit) by changing the gold content in order to counterbalance price variations. | | INTRANSITIVE VERB: | To serve as or provide a substitute or counterbalance. | | ETYMOLOGY: | Latin comp nsre, compnst- : com-, com- + pnsre, to weigh; see (s)pen- in Appendix I. | | OTHER FORMS: | compen·sative (kmpn-st v, km-p ns-tv) —ADJECTIVE
compen·sator —NOUN
com·pensa·tory (km-pns-tôr, -t r) —ADJECTIVE
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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