Wiktionary

content

See also: Content

English

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Etymology 1

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

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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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:
      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.
    • 1981, Colin Welland, Chariots of Fire, spoken by Harold M. Abrahams:
      You, Aubrey, are my most complete man. You're brave, compassionate, kind: a content man. That is your secret—contentment; I am 24 and I've never known it. I'm forever in pursuit, and I don't even know what I am chasing.
Derived terms
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Translations
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Noun

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content (uncountable)

  1. Satisfaction, contentment; pleasure.
    They were in a state of sleepy content after supper.
    • 1788, Mary Wollstonecraft, Mary: A Fiction‎[1]:
      ‘It is very difficult to […] learn to seek content, instead of happiness.’
    • 1791, Elizabeth Inchbald, A Simple Story, Penguin, published 2009, page 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.
    • 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:
      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 May, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on Criticism, London: […] W[illiam] Lewis […]; and sold by W[illiam] Taylor […], T[homas] Osborn[e] […], and J[ohn] Graves […], →OCLC:
      The sense they humbly take upon content.
  3. That which contents or satisfies; that which if attained would make one happy.
  4. (UK, House of Lords) An expression of assent to a bill or motion; an affirmative vote.
  5. (UK, House of Lords, by metonymy) A member who votes in assent.
Derived terms
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Interjection

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content

  1. (archaic) Alright, agreed.

Verb

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

  2. (transitive) To give contentment or satisfaction to; to satisfy; to make happy.
    You can't have any more. You'll have to content yourself with what you already have.
    • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Mark 15:15:
      And so Pilate, willing to content the people, released Barabbas unto them, and delivered Jesus, when he had scourged him, to be crucified.
    • 1741, I[saac] Watts, chapter 14, in The Improvement of the Mind: Or, A Supplement to the Art of Logick: […], London: […] James Brackstone, […], →OCLC, page 194:
      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 November 3, Felicity Cloake, “How to make the perfect cacio e pepe”, in The Guardian:
      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.
Derived terms
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Translations
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Etymology 2

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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.

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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content (comparative more content, superlative most content)

  1. (obsolete) Contained.

Noun

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content (countable and uncountable, plural contents)

  1. (uncountable) That which is contained.
    Coordinate term: contents
  3. Subject matter; semantic information (or a portion or body thereof); 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.
    Prolific creators manage their voluminous content with any of various content management systems.
    • 1841 February–November, Charles Dickens, “Barnaby Rudge. Chapter 21.”, in Master Humphrey’s Clock, volume III, London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC:
      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.
    • 2000 October, John Perry Barlow, “The Next Economy Of Ideas”, in Wired‎[2], →ISSN:
      In the future, instead of bottles of dead "content," I imagine electronically defined venues, where minds residing in bodies scattered all over the planet are admitted, either by subscription or a ticket at a time, into the real-time presence of the creative act.
    • 2013 June 21, Oliver Burkeman, “The tao of tech”, in The Guardian Weekly‎[3], 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.
  4. The amount of material contained; contents.
    Light beer has a lower alcohol content than regular beer.
  5. (obsolete) Capacity for containing.
  6. (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); length, area or volume, generalized to an arbitrary number of dimensions.
  7. (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 terms
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Descendants
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  • → Russian: контент (kontent)
    • → Armenian: կոնտենտ (kontent)
Translations
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English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *ten- (1 c, 62 e)

Further reading

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Anagrams

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Catalan

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Etymology

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From Latin contentus.

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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

  1. content, satisfied, pleased
    Antonym: descontent

Derived terms

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Further reading

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Dutch

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Pronunciation

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  • Audio:(file)
  • Hyphenation: con‧tent

Etymology 1

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Adjective

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content (comparative contenter, superlative contentst)

  1. content(ed), satisfied

Etymology 2

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Noun

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content m (uncountable)

  1. the content of a medium

French

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Etymology 1

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

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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

  1. content, satisfied, pleased
    Synonym: satisfait
Derived terms
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Descendants
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Etymology 2

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See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Pronunciation

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Verb

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content

  1. third-person plural present/subjunctive of conter

Further reading

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Louisiana Creole

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Etymology

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

Verb

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content

  1. to be contented

References

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  • Alcée Fortier, Louisiana Folktales

Middle French

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Etymology

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From Old French content, borrowed from Latin contentus.

Adjective

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

  1. happy; satisfied; content

Descendants

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Norman

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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

Adjective

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content m

  1. (Jersey) happy
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