Meanings
present singular third person compartmentalizes · participle present compartmentalizing · participle past compartmentalized · past compartmentalized · alternative compartmentalise
- transitiveTo separate something into different categories, or compartments.
(He [speaker Mike Johnson] recently said that women, unlike men, are unable to “compartmentalize” their thoughts.)
2025 December 9, Michelle Goldberg, “Republican Women Suddenly Realize They’re Surrounded by Misogynists”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC4 more examples
In summary, we find the below listed empirical observations coming from our analysis of our Google hospital reviews ¶ The 11 identified valenced topics do not line up well with the standard way that the CMS and other surveys use to measure experiences, i.e., patients do not compartmentalize most of their comments to specific staff—doctors, nurses, etc.—or even departments.
2024 July 18, Nah Lee, Richard Staelin, “Patient text reviews and preference estimation”, in Marketing Letters, →DOIMediators and co-activators BRD4 and MED1 form phase-separated droplets at SEs that compartmentalize and concentrate the transcription apparatus, suggesting a significant role for co-activators in this process and revealing the regulation mechanisms of function and structure of SE involved in the control of hub cell identity genes.
2024 August 1, Hongying Ma, Jian Qu, Zicheng Pang, Jian Luo, Min Yan, Weixin Xu, Haihui Zhuang, Linxin Liu, Qiang Qu, “Super-enhancer omics in stem cell”, in Molecular Cancer, volume 23, →DOI, article 153Russia and Iran see the wars against Israel and Ukraine as indelibly linked — and we in the West would be foolish to compartmentalize them.
2024 August 13, Daniel Kochis, “Russia’s links with Iran are growing stronger”, in PoliticoI shook my head at what I saw as this man’s almost pathological ability to compartmentalize the madness he likely played a role in and the quaint, pastoral life he led at the same time. It reminded me of something I was told as a child.
2026 January 15, Shalom Auslander, “They Were Ordinary Germans. We Are Ordinary Americans.”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC
Synonyms & antonyms
verbseparate into isolated compartments or categories
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Proto-Indo-European*ḱe?
- Proto-Indo-European*ḱóm
- Proto-Italic*kom
- Proto-Italic*kom-
- Latincom-
- Proto-Indo-European*perh₃-
- Proto-Indo-European*pérh₃tis?
- Proto-Italic*partis
- Latinpars
- Latinpartiō
- Latinpartior
- Latincompartīrī
- Italiancompartire
- Italiancompartimento
- Middle Frenchcompartiment
- Englishcompartment
- Proto-Indo-European*h₂el-
- Proto-Indo-European*h₂élisder.?
- Englishcompartmental
- Englishcompartmentalize
From compartmental + -ize.
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Catalan compartimentar
- compartimentarseparate into different categories
Chinese Cantonese 劃分 /划分
- 劃分 /划分 (waak⁶ fan¹)separate into different categories
Chinese Mandarin 劃分 /划分
- 劃分 /划分 (huàfēn)separate into different categories
Dutch compartimenteren
- compartimenterenseparate into different categories
Finnish osastoida, jaotella
- osastoidaseparate into different categories
- jaotellaseparate into different categories
French compartimenter
- compartimenterseparate into different categories
German aufgliedern, unterteilen
- aufgliedernseparate into different categories
- unterteilenseparate into different categories
Italian compartimentalizzare
- compartimentalizzareseparate into different categories
Polish dzielić, podzielić
- dzielićseparate into different categories
- podzielićseparate into different categories
- szufladkowaćseparate into different categories
Portuguese compartimentar
- compartimentarseparate into different categories
Romanian compartimenta
- compartimentaseparate into different categories
Spanish compartimentar
- compartimentarseparate into different categories
Cite this entry
compartmentalize. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/compartmentalize
“compartmentalize.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/compartmentalize. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “compartmentalize,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/compartmentalize.
Source: compartmentalize on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.