Compounded

How to spell compounded

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce compounded

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does compounded mean?

1. verbMade a difficulty or problem more serious by adding further trouble to it.
2. verbCombined two or more separate parts or substances into a single whole.
3. verbAdded accumulated interest to a principal sum so that future interest is calculated on the larger total.

Compounded in a sentence

• The delayed flight compounded an already stressful week of travel.

• The pharmacist compounded several ingredients into one cream.

• The savings account compounded interest monthly rather than annually.

• Poor record keeping compounded the firm's tax problems.

• The recipe compounded sweet and savoury flavours in an unusual way.

• Over twenty years the investment compounded into a substantial sum.

Where does compounded come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This is the past tense of the verb 'compound', which traces back to the Latin componere, meaning literally 'to put together', from com- 'together' and ponere 'to place or put'. English took it through Old French componre or compondre during the 1300s, originally in the sense of mixing or combining ingredients into a single whole. The intrusive 'd' that ends the modern stem was not in the French form; it crept in during the fifteenth century by analogy with other English verbs ending in -ound, such as expound and propound, which is exactly why people sometimes hesitate over the spelling. Over time the word picked up several modern strands: to mix, to make something worse by adding to it, and, in finance, to add interest to a sum so that future interest is calculated on the larger total. The very same ponere root sits inside familiar relatives like 'component', 'opponent' and 'position'.

How the word is built

• com- (together)
• pound (to put, from Latin ponere)
• -ed (past tense/participle)