Compile

How to spell compile

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce compile

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does compile mean?

1. verbTo produce something, such as a list, report, or collection, by gathering material from various sources.
2. verbTo convert written source code into a form that a computer can execute.

Compile in a sentence

• The analyst spent the morning trying to compile the quarterly sales figures.

• The developer pressed the button to compile the program before running the tests.

• Volunteers worked together to compile a directory of local services.

• The older laptop took several minutes to compile the entire software project.

Where does compile come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes from the Latin verb compilare, which literally meant 'to plunder' or 'to snatch and pile together', formed from com- meaning 'together' and pilare meaning 'to press down' or 'to pack'. In its earliest Roman use it carried a slightly disreputable flavour, suggesting the heaping up of stolen goods, and that hint of gathering material from many places never quite left the word. English borrowed it in the 1300s by way of the Old French compiler, in the sense of putting a book or collection together out of other writings. Over time the negative shade of plundering faded, leaving the neutral modern sense of assembling something out of many separate parts. The much later computing sense, where a program converts written source code into machine instructions, simply reuses that same idea of gathering pieces into a single finished whole. The single 'l' in the ending is the usual spelling trap, since the word looks as though it might double up.

How the word is built

• com- (together)
• pil (from Latin pilare, to press together or heap up)
• -e