content

comparative more content · comparative contenter · superlative most content · superlative contentest

1. Satisfied, pleased, contented.

   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.

   1981, Colin Welland, Chariots of Fire, spoken by Harold M. Abrahams

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   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.

   1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC

1. uncountableSatisfaction, contentment; pleasure.

   They were in a state of sleepy content after supper.

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   ‘It is very difficult to […] learn to seek content, instead of happiness.’

   1788, Mary Wollstonecraft, Mary: A Fiction

   ‘I understand you—upon every other subject, but the only one, my content requires, you are ready to obey me.’

   1791, Elizabeth Inchbald, A Simple Story, Penguin, published 2009, page 287

   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.

   2008, Mingmei Yip, Peach Blossom Pavilion

   Such is the fullness of my heart's content.

   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]

   Kleph moved slowly from the door and sank upon the chaise longue with a little sigh of content.

   1946, C.L. Moore, Vintage Season

2. obsoleteuncountableAcquiescence without examination.

   The sense they humbly take upon content.

   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

3. uncountableThat which contents or satisfies; that which if attained would make one happy.

   So will I in England work your grace's full content.

   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]

4. UKuncountableHouse of LordsAn expression of assent to a bill or motion; an affirmative vote.
5. UKmetonymicallyuncountableHouse of LordsA member who votes in assent.

1. archaicAlright, agreed.

present singular third person contents · participle present contenting · participle past contented · past contented

1. transitiveTo 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.

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   And so Pilate, willing to content the people, released Barabbas unto them, and delivered Jesus, when he had scourged him, to be crucified.

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Mark 15:15

   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.

   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

   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).

   2016 November 3, Felicity Cloake, “How to make the perfect cacio e pepe”, in The Guardian

   Synonyms: elate, hearten, beatify, enrapture, begladden, blissen, bright, cheer

2. obsoletetransitiveTo satisfy the expectations of; to pay; to requite.

   Come the next Sabbath, and I will content you.

   c. 1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]

comparative more content · superlative most content

1. obsoleteContained.

plural contents

1. uncountableThat which is contained.

   Synonyms: contents

2. countableuncountableSubject 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.

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   You can look up the chapter on special relativity in the table of contents.

   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.

   1841 February–November, Charles Dickens, “Barnaby Rudge. Chapter 21.”, in Master Humphrey’s Clock, volume III, London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC

   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.

   2000 October, John Perry Barlow, “The Next Economy Of Ideas”, in Wired, →ISSN

   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.

   2013 June 21, Oliver Burkeman, “The tao of tech”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 2, page 27

   1. broadlyuncountableOne or more creative works.

      Some online video creators upload new content every day.

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      Prolific creators manage their voluminous content with any of various content management systems.

   2. InternetbroadlycolloquialcountableuncountableThe potential of creative work for a content creator.

      He moved to California for the content.

3. countableuncountableThe amount of material contained.

   Light beer has a lower alcohol content than regular beer.

4. countableobsoleteuncountableCapacity for containing.

   Strong ships, of great content.

   1627 (indicated as 1626), Francis [Bacon], “New Atlantis. A Worke Vnfinished.”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], London: […] William Rawley […]; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […], →OCLC

5. countableuncountablemathematicsThe 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.
6. countableuncountablering theoryalgebraThe 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.