1
as in directions
a guiding or motivating purpose or principle
a young go-getter who lost his moral compass in the course of his quest for fame and fortune
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
2
as in scopes
an area over which activity, capacity, or influence extends
within the compass of my voice
Synonyms & Similar Words
3
as in edges
the line or relatively narrow space that marks the outer limit of something
within the compass of the city walls
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
1
as in fulfils
to carry through (as a process) to completion
attempting more than his modest abilities could compass
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in circles
to travel completely around
the great age of exploration, when ships of sail compassed the earth
Synonyms & Similar Words
3
as in plots
to engage in a secret plan to accomplish evil or unlawful ends
the rebels are compassing the assassination of the king
Synonyms & Similar Words
4
as in surrounds
to form a circle around
a mysterious isle, compassed by treacherous seas
Synonyms & Similar Words
5
as in knows
to have a clear idea of
the concept that the earth is billions of years old is one that the average mind struggles to compass
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of compasses
Paulina Dedaj, FOXNews.com, 12 Aug. 2025
Noun
Orienteering is an outdoor sport that requires athletes to navigate between checkpoints using maps and compasses.
—Paulina Dedaj, FOXNews.com, 12 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for compasses
Noun
-
There’s has been a lot of innuendo; talk of wrong directions and disharmony.—
Sebastian Stafford-Bloor,
New York Times,
2 Sep. 2025
-
Follow the directions on the seed package for spacing and planting depth.—
Rita Pelczar,
Better Homes & Gardens,
2 Sep. 2025
Noun
-
The traditional client-vendor dynamic, defined by retainers, inflexible scopes and long approval cycles, no longer matches the speed or complexity of today’s business environment.—
Humphrey Ho,
Forbes.com,
14 Aug. 2025
Noun
-
Rainwater tends to accumulate at the road edges.—
CA Weather Bot,
Sacbee.com,
6 Sep. 2025
-
Discard the tired-looking center and separate clumps from the outer edges by hand or use a sharp knife or pruning saw.—
Rita Pelczar,
Better Homes & Gardens,
5 Sep. 2025
Verb
-
Location and orbit revealed The team calculated that the moon circles Uranus about 35,000 miles (56,000 kilometers) from the planet’s center.—
Aamir Khollam,
Interesting Engineering,
20 Aug. 2025
-
His falcon still circles, but the sky above Gaza offers no axis, no return path, no center to descend toward, only a deepening orbit around an absence no language can fill.—
Alaa Alqaisi
August 13,
Literary Hub,
13 Aug. 2025
Verb
-
Loktev’s film chronicles the Russian government’s systematic crackdown on journalists in late 2021 and early 2022 as Vladimir Putin plots his invasion of Ukraine.—
Tim Grierson,
Rolling Stone,
13 Aug. 2025
-
Harper is a surfer who plays by her own rules and even plots to break up her mother from her current fiancé.—
Lisa Stardust,
People.com,
8 Aug. 2025
Verb
-
The Kaufman-esque sequence that chases an ever-balding Mike through his movie roles and towards his destiny is great fun to watch, but ultimately calls our attention to the relative torpor that surrounds it.—
David Ehrlich,
IndieWire,
7 Sep. 2025
-
The collapse continues until a luminous sphere surrounds a dense core that is hot enough to sustain nuclear fusion.—
Luke Keller,
Space.com,
7 Sep. 2025
Verb
-
Who knows, but the struggle was real.—
David Aldridge,
New York Times,
8 Sep. 2025
-
Mark Fisher, who’s been keeping an eye on the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden's utility bills for the past 20 years, knows this all too well.—
Elizabeth B. Kim,
Cincinnati Enquirer,
7 Sep. 2025
Noun
-
When a mother tree is felled, the survival rate of many of its seedlings may be drastically reduced, a process not unlike the reciprocal feedback loop of Yggdrasill, whose deterioration in response to discord in the nine realms spells cosmic collapse.—
Ellen Walker,
JSTOR Daily,
3 Sep. 2025
-
These leaders are the future of our communities in both the corporate and nonprofit realms.—
Expert Panel®,
Forbes.com,
2 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Compasses.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/compasses. Accessed 8 Sep. 2025.
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