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# compare

«compare» in Mova's school dictionary: **to look at two or more things to see how they are the…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

verb (compare, compares, compared, comparing)

### meaning for a pupil

1) To compare is to look at two or more things to see how they are the same and how they are different. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/compare/#m1)

2) To compare is also to say one thing is like another. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/compare/#m2)

3) «Compared with» or «compared to» means when you set one beside the other. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/compare/#m3)

### sense in the lessons

maths: asks to look at two amounts, usually to find how many more or fewer one has than the other, or which is bigger (>, <, =); science: compare results, compare two plants; English: compare two stories or characters; everyday life: compare prices to save money

### examples

- Compare the number of apples and pears. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/compare/#x1)
- Compare 45 and 54: which is bigger? [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/compare/#x2)
- Compared to Tom, Sara has 7 more stickers. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/compare/#x3)
- Compare the lengths of the two ropes. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/compare/#x4)
- Compare the two plants: which grew taller? [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/compare/#x5)
- Compare prices before you buy. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/compare/#x6)
- The poem compares the moon to a balloon. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/compare/#x7)
- Compared with last year, it is warmer. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/compare/#x8)
- Nothing in the world can be compared with red shoes. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/compare/#x9)

### note

Usually points to subtraction (the difference) or to choosing the bigger or smaller amount. Trap: «compared to Tom, Sara has 7 more» means Sara = Tom + 7, not Tom + 7 for Tom. To compare numbers, look at the biggest place value first.

### In the corpora

- [Many online photos are filtered or edited; comparing your real face to an edited picture is unfair on yourself.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/47-viral-rumours-cancellations-fakes-and-apologies/9/)
- [A family ticket is only a good deal after checking: add up the single tickets for your family and compare.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/62-olympiad-plans-in-order-and-money-sums/16/)
- [Proportion means how big each part is compared with the others.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/arts/12-drawing-lines-shapes-and-drawing-what-you-really-see/8/)
- [Mammoths were close relatives of today's elephants, closest of all to the Asian elephant, as scientists found by comparing DNA.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/130-ice-age-real-woolly-mammoths/12/)
- [Newspapers can favour one side; comparing two reports helps you spot it.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/24-persuasive-letters-newspaper-articles-and-diaries/23/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «compare» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/compare/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.