Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
⚖️ To balance out 💵 To pay back 🏅 To make up
to compensate

to compensate

10 4.8
To try to cover a weakness by showing other strengths
  • verb
  • /ˈkɒmpənˌseɪt/
: compensar
  • He became an overachiever in his career to compensate for his insecurities during childhood.
  • compensate for the lack
  • compensate for feelings
  • compensate for the loss

People have learned ways to be able to compensate for trauma.

Autoplay Next

Examples

  • Students begin to appreciate one another's strengths and talents, and they learn to compensate for each other's weaknesses.

    Academic text (1994)

  • Your presenter's skill and enthusiasm can compensate for every other shortcoming that exists in your program.

    Academic text (2000)

  • I felt like I had to know everything to compensate for being such a poor kid.

    Academic text (1995)

  • People have learned ways to be able to compensate for trauma.

    Stanford

  • I suppose we compensate for our lives, for our lacks, if we choose to.

    Evan Carmichael

  • I think, you know, I compensated for how I learn with other people.

  • It's all just been to compensate for the fact that I don't know anything.

    The Night Before (2015)

  • He tries to compensate for me.

    At Long Last Love (1975)

  • The eating disorder is an attempt to compensate for this internal chaos by exerting strict control over food and weight.

    Academic text (2015)

  • In that sense, nature has a way of compensating for one's weaknesses by enhancing one's strengths.

    Academic text (1999)

Antonyms

to accept
870 3.5

To tolerate an unpleasant situation without complaining

How Defensive

to project
  • Specialized
50 7.5
to compensate
10 4.8
to accept
870 3.5
to acknowledge
659 3.8

Surface Forms

compensate infinitive
compensated past
compensated past participle
compensating present participle
compensates third person singular

Morphology

compensate = compense + compensation (transparent) = com + pens + ate

The psychological sense ('make up for' shortcomings) is a metaphorical extension but remains directly connected to the core meaning found in the 'compensation' word family.

Etymology

Compensate comes from the Latin parts com- 'together' and pensare 'to weigh'. A helpful way to remember this personal meaning is to think of someone trying to make up for a weakness by showing strength in another area, which is what it means to compensate.