Compilation

How to spell compilation

11 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce compilation

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does compilation mean?

1. nounA collection of separate items, such as songs, writings, or data, gathered together into one work.

Compilation in a sentence

• The record label released a compilation of her early singles.

• The analyst spent a week on the compilation of the quarterly sales figures.

Where does compilation come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word descends from the Latin verb compilare, which meant 'to plunder' or 'to snatch together', built from com- 'together' and pilare 'to plunder' or 'to rob'. To a Roman, then, putting a collection together had a slightly thievish flavour, as if you were raiding many sources and heaping up the spoils. The verb passed into Old French as compiler and reached English in the late fourteenth century, by which time the harsher 'plundering' sense had softened into the respectable idea of gathering written material from various places into a single work. The matching noun compilation followed the same route, meaning a thing assembled from other things, and later spread to music collections, data, and statistics. The spelling trap lives in the single l and the unstressed middle vowel: it is com-pi-LA-tion, not 'compillation', so writers who hear the schwa often guess at the consonants.

How the word is built

• com- (together)
• pil (from Latin pilare: to plunder, to snatch together)
• -ation (noun-forming suffix)