compatible

Etymology

from Middle French compatible, from Medieval Latin compatibilis (“in compatible beneficium, a benefice which could be held together with another one”), from Late Latin compati (“to suffer with”)

Pronunciation

• (US, Canada) IPA^(key): /kəmˈpætəbəl/

Adjective

compatible (comparative more compatible, superlative most compatible)

1. Capable of easy interaction.

   This printer isn't compatible with my computer.

2. Able to get along well.

   My neighbours and I are not very compatible: they're loud and I'm an introvert.

3. Consistent; congruous.

   His actions were compatible with his sermons.

   • 1922, Ben Travers, chapter 1, in A Cuckoo in the Nest‎:

     She was like a Beardsley Salome, he had said. And indeed she had the narrow eyes and the high cheekbone of that creature, and as nearly the sinuosity as is compatible with human symmetry.

Noun

compatible (plural compatibles)

1. Something that is compatible with something else.

   a computer company that sells IBM compatibles

Adjective

compatible (epicene, plural compatibles)

1. compatible (capable of easy interaction)

Adjective

compatible (masculine and feminine plural compatibles)

1. compatible

Adjective

compatible (plural compatibles)

1. compatible

Further reading

• “compatible” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Adjective

compatible m, f (plural compatibles)

1. compatible

References

• Godefroy, Frédéric, Dictionnaire de l'ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IX^e au XV^e siècle (1881) (compatible, supplement)

Adjective

compatible (plural compatibles)

1. compatible