Other forms: compacted, compacts, compacting
Compact means neatly small, with nothing wasted. A compact kitchen, compact and light, a compact car.
It is approving where small might not be: a compact flat is well arranged rather than cramped. In advertising it does a great deal of work. As a verb, to compact is to press together, which is what a compactor does to waste and what compacted soil suffers from. A compact is also a formal agreement, and a small case for face powder. Note the stress: the adjective and noun differ from the verb.
1adjectivecompactNeatly small, with nothing wasted.
“The camera is compact enough to fit in your pocket.”
2verbpressTo press together.
“The heavy machines compacted the soil so badly that nothing would grow.”
compact is a quality of neat smallness.
Latin compactus is the participle of compingere, to join together — com plus pangere, to fasten. The agreement sense comes from a different Latin verb, compacisci, to make a bargain.
Latin
compactum — agreement
English, today
compact
Borrowed from Latin compactum (“agreement”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in Sharper Adjectives