Word.ws English Dictionary

outcompass

outcompass verb: to exceed the limits of; to surpass, transcend or go beyond.

Verb

outcompass (third-person singular simple present outcompasses, present participle outcompassing, simple past and past participle outcompassed)

  1. (dated, rare, transitive) To exceed the limits of; to surpass, transcend or go beyond.
    • "It is manifest that there is no danger at all in the proportion or quantity of knowledge, how large soever, lest it should make it swell or out-compass itself; no, but it is merely the quality of knowledge, which, be it in quantity more or less, if it be taken without the true corrective thereof...1605, Francis Bacon, The Advancement of Learning

Synonyms of outcompass

Forms of outcompass

third-person singular presentoutcompasses
present participleoutcompassing
past participleoutcompassed
pastoutcompassed

Origin of outcompass

From out- + compass (“limit”).

Questions about outcompass

What does outcompass mean?
Outcompass means to exceed the limits of; to surpass, transcend or go beyond.
What part of speech is outcompass?
Outcompass is a verb.
What is the past tense of outcompass?
The past tense of outcompass is outcompassed.

Words near outcompass in the dictionary

  1. outcomer
  2. outcomers
  3. outcomes
  4. outcoming
  5. outcomings
  6. outcompass
  7. outcompassed
  8. outcompasses
  9. outcompassing
  10. outcompete
  11. outcompeted

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: outcompass (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “outcompass.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/outcompass. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.