content

EnglishEdit

 
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Etymology 1Edit

From Middle French content (“satisfied”), from Latin contentus (“contained; satisfied”), past participle of continēre (“to contain”).

PronunciationEdit

  • enPR: kəntĕnt', IPA(key): /kənˈtɛnt/
    • Audio (UK)
      		(file)
  • Hyphenation: con‧tent

AdjectiveEdit

content (comparative more content or contenter, superlative most content)

  2. Satisfied, pleased, contented.
    • 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, OCLC 639762314, page 0108:
      This new-comer was a man who in any company would have seemed striking. […] He was smooth-faced, and his fresh skin and well-developed figure bespoke the man in good physical condition through active exercise, yet well content with the world's apportionment.
TranslationsEdit

NounEdit

content (uncountable)

  1. Satisfaction, contentment; pleasure.
    They were in a state of sleepy content after supper.
    • 1788, Mary Wollstonecraft, Mary, Oxford 2009, p. 51:
      ‘It is very difficult to […] learn to seek content, instead of happiness.’
    • 1791, Elizabeth Inchbald, A Simple Story, Penguin 2009, p. 287:
      ‘I understand you—upon every other subject, but the only one, my content requires, you are ready to obey me.’
    • 2008, Mingmei Yip, Peach Blossom Pavilion:
      Like an empress, I feel great content surrounded by the familiar sounds of laughter, bickering, rattling plates, clicking chopsticks, smacking lips, and noisy sipping of the longevity brew.
    • c. 1591, William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 2: Act 1, Scene 1
      Such is the fullness of my heart's content.
    • 1946, C.L. Moore, Vintage Season:
      Kleph moved slowly from the door and sank upon the chaise longue with a little sigh of content.
  2. (obsolete) Acquiescence without examination.
    • 1711, Alexander Pope, An Essay on Criticism
      The sense they humbly take upon content.
  3. That which contents or satisfies; that which if attained would make one happy.
    • c. 1591, William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 2: Act 1, Scene 1
      So will I in England work your grace's full content.
  4. (Britain, House of Lords) An expression of assent to a bill or motion; an affirmate vote.
  5. (Britain, House of Lords, by metonymy) A member who votes in assent.
Derived termsEdit

InterjectionEdit

content

  1. (archaic) Alright, agreed.

VerbEdit

content (third-person singular simple present contents, present participle contenting, simple past and past participle contented)

  2. (transitive) To give contentment or satisfaction; to satisfy; to make happy.
    You can't have any more - you'll have to content yourself with what you already have.
    • 1611, King James Version of the Bible, Mark 15:15,[1]
      And so Pilate, willing to content the people, released Barabbas unto them, and delivered Jesus, when he had scourged him, to be crucified.
    • 1741, Isaac Watts, The Improvement of the Mind, London: James Brackstone, Part I, Chapter 14, p. 194,[2]
      Do not content yourselves with meer Words and Names, lest your laboured Improvements only amass a heap of unintelligible Phrases, and you feed upon Husks instead of Kernels.
    • 2016, Felicity Cloake, “How to make the perfect cacio e pepe,” The Guardian, 3 November, 2016,[3]
      Caz Hildebrand and Jacob Kenedy recommend rigatoni in the Geometry of Pasta, and Christopher Boswell, the chef behind the Rome Sustainable Food project, prefers wholemeal paccheri or rigatoni in his book Pasta, on the basis that “the flavour of the whole grain is strong enough to stand up to the sharp and salty sheep’s milk cheese” (as I can find neither easily, I have to content myself with brown penne instead).
  3. (transitive, obsolete) To satisfy the expectations of; to pay; to requite.

TranslationsEdit

satisfy — See also translations at satisfy

Etymology 2Edit

From Middle English content (plural contentes, contence), from Latin contentus, past participle of continēre (“to hold in, contain”), as Etymology 1, above. English apparently developed a substantive form of the adjective, which is not mirrored in Romance languages.

PronunciationEdit

AdjectiveEdit

content (comparative more content, superlative most content)

  1. (obsolete) Contained.

NounEdit

content (countable and uncountable, plural contents)

  1. (uncountable) That which is contained.
    • 2013 June 21, Oliver Burkeman, “The tao of tech”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 2, page 27:
      The dirty secret of the internet is that all this distraction and interruption is immensely profitable. Web companies like to boast about "creating compelling content", or […] and so on. But the real way to build a successful online business is to be better than your rivals at undermining people's control of their own attention.
  2. Subject matter; that which is contained in writing, speech, video, etc.
    Although eloquently delivered, the content of the speech was objectionable.
    Some online video creators upload new content every day.
    • 1841, Charles Dickens, Barnaby Rudge Chapter 21
      Hugh admitting that he never had, and moreover that he couldn’t read, Mrs Varden declared with much severity, that he ought to he even more ashamed of himself than before, and strongly recommended him to save up his pocket-money for the purchase of one, and further to teach himself the contents with all convenient diligence.
  3. The amount of material contained; contents.
    Light beer has a lower alcohol content than regular beer.
  4. (obsolete) Capacity for containing.
  5. (mathematics) The n-dimensional space contained by an n-dimensional polytope (called volume in the case of a polyhedron and area in the case of a polygon).
  6. (algebra, ring theory, of a polynomial with coefficients in a GCD domain) The greatest common divisor of the coefficients; (of a polynomial with coefficients in an integral domain) the common factor of the coefficients which, when removed, leaves the adjusted coefficients with no common factor that is noninvertible.
Derived termsEdit
TranslationsEdit

Related termsEdit

► English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *ten-‎ (0 c, 47 e)

Further readingEdit

AnagramsEdit

CatalanEdit

EtymologyEdit

From Latin contentus.

PronunciationEdit

AdjectiveEdit

content (feminine contenta, masculine plural contents, feminine plural contentes)

  1. content, satisfied, pleased
    Antonym: descontent

Derived termsEdit

Further readingEdit

FrenchEdit

Etymology 1Edit

From Middle French content, from Old French, borrowed from Latin contentus.

PronunciationEdit

AdjectiveEdit

content (feminine singular contente, masculine plural contents, feminine plural contentes)

  1. content, satisfied, pleased
Derived termsEdit

Etymology 2Edit

See the etymology of the main entry.

PronunciationEdit

VerbEdit

content

  1. third-person plural present/subjunctive of conter

Further readingEdit

Louisiana Creole FrenchEdit

EtymologyEdit

From French content (“content”), compare Haitian Creole kontan.

VerbEdit

content

  1. to be contented

ReferencesEdit

  • Alcée Fortier, Louisiana Folktales

Middle FrenchEdit

EtymologyEdit

From Old French content, borrowed from Latin contentus.

AdjectiveEdit

content m (feminine singular contente, masculine plural contens, feminine plural contentes)

  1. happy; satisfied; content

DescendantsEdit

  • French: content

NormanEdit

Alternative formsEdit

EtymologyEdit

From Old French, borrowed from Latin contentus (“having been held together, contained”), from contineō, continēre (“hold or keep together, surround, contain”).

AdjectiveEdit

content m

  1. (Jersey) happy
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