Compound may refer to:

Architecture and built environments

Compound (enclosure) Compound, when applied to a human habitat, refers to a cluster of buildings in an enclosure, having a shared or associated purpose, such as the houses of an extended family (e.g. the Kennedy Compound for the Kennedy family). The enclosure may ...

, a cluster of buildings having a shared purpose, usually inside a fence or wall ** Compound (fortification), a version of the above fortified with defensive structures * Compound (migrant labour), a hostel for migrant workers such as those historically connected with mines in South Africa * The Compound, an area of Palm Bay, Florida, US *

Komboni A komboni is a type of informal housing compound or shanty town common to Zambia, particularly the capital city of Lusaka. It is characterized by a low income and a high population density. Kombonis typically began as housing for employees of a p ...

or compound, a type of slum in Zambia

Government and law

Composition (fine) Compounding is a legal procedure whereby a criminal or delinquent avoids prosecution in a court of law, potentially leading to the confiscation of his estate or some other punishment, in exchange for his payment to the authorities of a financial pe ...

, a legal procedure in use after the English Civil War ** Committee for Compounding with Delinquents, an English Civil War institution that allowed Parliament to compound the estates of Royalists *

Compounding treason Compounding treason is an offence under the common law of England. It is committed by anyone who agrees for consideration to abstain from prosecuting the offender who has committed treason. It is still an offence in England and Wales, and in North ...

, an offence under the common law of England *

Compounding a felony Compounding a felony was an offence under the common law of England and was classified as a misdemeanour. It consisted of a prosecutor or victim of an offence accepting anything of value under an agreement not to prosecute, or to hamper the prose ...

, a previous offense under the common law of England

Linguistics

Compound (linguistics) In linguistics, a compound is a lexeme (less precisely, a word or Sign language, sign) that consists of more than one Word stem, stem. Compounding, composition or nominal composition is the process of word formation that creates compound lexemes. C ...

, a word that consists of more than one radical element * Compound sentence (linguistics), a type of sentence made up of two or more independent clauses and no subordinate (dependent) clauses

Science, technology, and mathematics

Biology and medicine

Compounding In the field of pharmacy, compounding (performed in compounding pharmacies) is preparation of custom medications to fit unique needs of patients that cannot be met with mass-produced formulations. This may be done, for example, to provide medic ...

, the mixing of drugs in pharmacy *

Compound fracture An open fracture, also called a compound fracture, is a type of bone fracture (broken bone) that has an open wound in the skin near the fractured bone. The skin wound is usually caused by the bone breaking through the surface of the skin. An open fr ...

, a complete fractures of bone where at least one fragment has damaged the skin, soft tissue or surrounding body cavity *

Compound leaf A leaf (: leaves) is a principal appendage of the stem of a vascular plant, usually borne laterally above ground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, stem, f ...

, a type of leaf being divided into smaller leaflets

Chemistry and materials science

Chemical compound A chemical compound is a chemical substance composed of many identical molecules (or molecular entities) containing atoms from more than one chemical element held together by chemical bonds. A molecule consisting of atoms of only one element ...

, combination of two or more elements * Plastic compounding, a method of preparing plastic formulations

Vehicles and engines

* Compound engine, a steam engine in which steam is expanded through a series of two or three cylinders before exhaust * Turbo-compound engine, an internal combustion engine where exhaust gases expand through power-turbines *

Compounding pressure Pressure compounding is the method in which pressure in a steam turbine is made to drop in a number of stages rather than in a single nozzle. This method of compounding is used in Rateau and Zoelly turbines. Construction The arrangement consis ...

, a method in which pressure in a steam turbine is made to drop in a number of stages

Other uses in science, technology, and mathematics

Compound bow In modern archery, a compound bow is a bow that uses a levering system, usually of cables and pulleys, to bend the limbs. The compound bow was first developed in 1966 by Holless Wilbur Allen in North Kansas City, Missouri, and a US patent w ...

, a type of bow for archery *

Polyhedral compound In geometry, a polyhedral compound is a figure that is composed of several polyhedra sharing a common Centroid, centre. They are the three-dimensional analogs of star polygon#Regular compounds, polygonal compounds such as the hexagram. The oute ...

, a polyhedron composed of multiple polyhedra sharing the same centre

Other uses

Common names

Compound (music) In music, metre (British spelling) or meter (American spelling) refers to regularly recurring patterns and accents such as bar (music), bars and Beat (music), beats. Unlike rhythm (music), rhythm, metric onsets are not necessarily sounded, but ar ...

, an attribute of a time signature *

Compound interest Compound interest is interest accumulated from a principal sum and previously accumulated interest. It is the result of reinvesting or retaining interest that would otherwise be paid out, or of the accumulation of debts from a borrower. Compo ...

, in finance, unpaid interest that is added to the principal *

Compound chocolate Compound chocolate is a product made from a combination of cocoa, vegetable fat and sweeteners. It is used as a lower-cost alternative to pure chocolate ''(())'' as it uses less-expensive hard vegetable fats such as coconut oil or palm kernel ...

, an inexpensive chocolate substitute that uses cocoa but excludes cocoa butter

Proper names

* ''The Compound'' (book), a 2008 young adult novel by S. A. Bodeen *

Compound (company) Compound (formerly known as Metamorphic Ventures) is a New York-based seed fund that invests in startup and early-stage technology companies. In March 2014, the company announced a new fund with close to $70 million. It also added Google vice pres ...

, a venture capital firm previously known as Metamorphic Ventures *

Eisenhuth Horseless Vehicle Company Eisenhuth Horseless Vehicle Company was a manufacturer of Brass Age automobiles who were originally based in New York City. In 1902 the company purchased the Keating Wheel and Automobile Company and established manufacturing operations in Midd ...

, or Compound, a former US automobile manufacturer