Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Compost |
CompostNoun1. A mixture of decaying vegetation and manure; used as a fertilizer. Verb1. Convert to compost, as of organic debris. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "compost" was first used: 14th century. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Environment | The relatively stable humus material that is produced from a composting process in which bacteria in soil mixed with garbage and degradable trash break down the mixture into organic fertilizer. (references) |
Weather | Partially decomposed organic plant and animal matter that can be used as a soil conditioner or fertilizer. See decomposition. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Compost is the decayed remnants of plant materials and animal manure with the essential ingredient of humus. Compost is used in gardening and agriculture, mixed in with the soil to improve its structure (by increasing its organic content) and fertilizing quality. The best compost is made from roughly one third by volume of materials from the following three groups:
The materials are placed in alternating layers, approximately 15 cm (6 inches) thick. As the heap is built, it is wetted to the consistency of a well wrung-out sponge. The heap should be about 1 m (3 ft) wide, 1 m (3 ft) tall, and as long as is practicable – the advantage to making the heap at least 1 cu m (1 cu yd) is that it provides suitable insulating mass to allow a good heat build-up as the material decays. The heat provides a suitable environment for thermophilic (heat-loving) bacteria, which accelerate the decomposition process. The centre of the heap should get quite warm, possibly hot enough to burn a bare hand. If this fails to happen, it's nearly always because the heap is too wet, thus excluding the oxygen required by the compost bacteria, or because there is insufficient protein (animal manure). The solution is to add material, if necessary, and/or to turn the pile to aerate it.
Depending on how quickly the compost is required, the heap can be turned one or more times to bring the outer layers to the inside of the heap and vice versa, as well as to aerate the mixture. Once all the material has become barely recognisable from the original ingredients, it's ready to use. Some practitioners like to leave the compost to mature further for up to a year as this seems to make the benefits of compost last longer.
Some like to put special materials and activators into their compost. A light dusting of agricultural lime (not on the animal manure layers) can curb excessive acidity that can slow down the fermentation. Seaweed meal can provide a ready source of trace elements. Finely pulverised rock dust can also provide needed minerals, but watch out for rock dust that consists mostly of clay.
The animal manure part of compost source materials can be collected by compost toilets (in this case, human feces). However, such compost is usually not used as a fertilizer for plants that are directly edible (eg, salad crops) but should instead be used on trees, bush fruits or else on the ornametal garden.
Composting Systems
External Links
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Compost."
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Uncleanness | Spawn, offal, gurry; lientery; garbage, carrion; excreta; slough, peccant humor, pus, matter, suppuration, lienteria; faeces, feces, excrement, ordure, dung, crap, sewage, sewerage; muck; coprolite; guano, manure, compost. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Compost |
| English words defined with "compost": compost heap, compost pile, Composture ♦ Mixen ♦ spade. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "compost": Biostabilizer ♦ Composting ♦ ground covering ♦ Soil conditioner, spawn takes. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "compost": Compote. (references) |
| Non-English Usage: "Compost" is also a word in the following languages with English translations in parentheses. French (compost), Romanian (compost), Spanish (compost). |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | Rub some compost in your face, straight boys love it. (Bedrooms and Hallways; writing credit: Robert Farrar) | |
Movie/TV Titles | Making a Compost Heap (1942) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books | |||
Periodicals |
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Music |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | Compost containing turkey manure and wood chips from bedding material is dried and then applied to pastures for fertilizer. Benton, Arkansas. Credit: Jeff Vanuga. |  | A homeowner sifts soil made from his compost bin in background. Composting is an excellent way to recycle household and yard wastes. Credit: Lynn Betts. |
 | Raised garden beds also serve as rotating compost bins for Ron Francis of Houston. See 99-572 for results. Credit: Ron Francis. |  | Garden grown in raised garden beds fueled by compost made in the beds. Credit: Ron Francis. |
 | Compost vaulted toilet at Turn Point. Credit: Rich Ray. | ||
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| Title | Author | Quote |
Walden | Thoreau, Henry David | The better part of the man is soon plowed into the soil for compost. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Business | The whole country has only 2 compost units. (references) | |
Economic History | Uae | The project budgeted for US $ 180 to US $ 210 million includes two landfills for solid and hazardous waste disposal at Al Dhafra and a hazardous liquid waste treatment unit, a solid waste management center, two transfer stations, and a compost plant at Mafraq. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Compost" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 96.99% of the time. "Compost" is used about 498 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 96.99% | 483 | 12,337 |
| Lexical Verb (infinitive) | 1.6% | 8 | 124,375 |
| Lexical Verb (base form) | 1.4% | 7 | 133,076 |
| Total | 100.00% | 498 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "compost": compost heap ♦ compost pile ♦ potting compost. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "compost": compost-filled, compost-heap, compost-maker, compost-makers, compost-making. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day | Expression | Frequency per Day |
compost | 1,113 | cedar compost grove | 14 |
compost bin | 342 | garden compost | 14 |
compost tumbler | 137 | compost drum | 14 |
compost santiago spain | 131 | compost thermometer | 13 |
compost tea | 114 | make a compost bin | 12 |
compost toilet | 49 | urban compost tumbler | 12 |
make compost | 40 | compost machine | 12 |
compost pile | 40 | compost equipment | 12 |
making compost | 37 | compost heap | 9 |
worm compost | 30 | compost bin design | 9 |
mushroom compost | 28 | brewer compost tea | 8 |
build a compost bin | 28 | compost barrel | 8 |
compost maker | 25 | compost box | 8 |
organic compost | 23 | build a compost | 7 |
compost bin plan | 19 | compost barrels | 7 |
compost container | 17 | compost needle pine | 7 |
compost piles | 17 | compost tool | 7 |
compost turner | 15 | compost aerator | 7 |
compost record | 15 | compost pail | 7 |
building a compost bin | 14 | compost spreader | 7 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Language | Translations for "compost"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | plehëroj me komposto, përzierje plehrash. (various references) | |
Arabic | مزيج لتسميد الارض, مزيج (admixture, blend, commixture, farrago, hash, hodgepodge, hotchpotch, jumble, medley, melange, mishmash, mix, mixing up, mixture), سماد (dressing, manure, muck), خليط (admixture, blend, conglomeration, cut, farrago, hash, hodgepodge, hotchpotch, medley, melange, mishmash, mix, mixture, mixture concoction, patchy). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | смесена тор, торя (dress, dung, fat, fertilize, manure, muck, nourish), компост, органична тор. (various references) | |
Chinese | 天然肥料. (various references) | |
Czech | kompost. (various references) | |
Danish | syntetisk kompost (artificial compost, synthetic compost, synthetics), omstikning af en kompostbunke foretages med et dozerblad (mingling a compost heap is done with a dozer blade), hel gennemloebet kompost (full grown compost, full run compost). (various references) | |
Dutch | synthetische compost (artificial compost, synthetic compost, synthetics), kunstmatige compost (artificial compost, synthetic compost, synthetics), kunstcompost (artificial compost, synthetic compost, synthetics), geheel doorgroeide compost (full grown compost, full run compost), bet omzetten van de composthoop geheurt met de landschaaf (mingling a compost heap is done with a dozer blade). (various references) | |
Farsi | موادمقوی نباتات , مخلوط (Admixture, Blend, Composite, Hash, Mixed, Mixture), کوددادن (Dung, Manure). (various references) | |
Finnish | komposti (muck). (various references) | |
French | compost. (various references) | |
German | kompost (letter). (various references) | |
Greek | κοπρόχωμα (loam), φουσκίζω, φουσκί, λίπασμα από φύλλα. (various references) | |
Hebrew | קומפוסט, זבל (dung, excrement, garbage, manure, ordure, rubbish, trash). (various references) | |
Hungarian | komposzt (muck). (various references) | |
Indonesian | pupuk (fertilizer, manure), kompos. (various references) | |
Italian | concime (dung, manure, muck). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 草肥 , 積み肥 (manure), 培養土 , 廐肥 (manure), コン"ュータ"語 (combo, comfrey, competition, complement, complete, completion, complex, compliance, compliment, component, component stereo, component type, composer, composite, composite index, composition, compote, compress, compressor, computation, computer communication, computerese, computing, computopia, computopolis, con brio, confection, confectionery, conference, confession, configuration, conflict, conform, conformism, convention, convention bureau, convention center, convention hall, conventional, conveyor, conveyor system, convoy), 肥 . (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | たいひ (comparison, contrast, evacuation, loan, shelter, shunt, taking refuge), くさ"え, きゅうひ (manure, provision of expenses, scholarship), ばいようど, つみ"え (manure), コンポスト . (various references) | |
Korean | 퇴비. (various references) | |
Manx | mooireen. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | ompostcay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | composto (composed, composite, compound, decent, sedate, serious), transformar em adubo, húmus (mold, mould), adubo (fertilizer, manure), adubar (dung, fertilize, lime, manure, nourish, season). (various references) | |
Romanian | compost, trata cu compost. (various references) | |
Russian | компост. (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | pomešati (admix, blend, commingle, intermingle, intermix, jumble, mix, rabble), mešavina (admixture, amalgam, blend, composite, congeries, farrago, hash, intermixture, jumble, medley, melange, mix, mixture, olio, pasticcio, pastiche), kompost, gnojivo (muck). (various references) | |
Spanish | abono (deposit, dressing, fertilization, fertilizer, guarantee, manure, manuring, payment, receipt, season ticket, subscription). (various references) | |
Swedish | kompost (mulch). (various references) | |
Turkish | organik gübre, gübrelemek (dung, fatten, fertilize, manure, muck), bitki artıklarının çürümesiyle oluşan gübre. (various references) | |
Ukrainian | удобрювати компостом, компост, готувати компост. (various references) | |
Vietnamese | phân trộn, phân compôt. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Middle French | 1400-1600 | composte. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "compost": composted, composting, composts. (additional references) | |
| |
"Compost" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: composa, composit, composity, composto, compot, Compson, compuss, cookpots, Cumpsty. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "compost" (pronounced kÄ"mpōst) |
| 3 | -ō s t | provost, undiagnosed. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "c-m-o-o-p-s-t" | |
-1 letter: compos, compts, coopts. | |
-2 letters: compo, comps, compt, coops, coopt, coots, moots, scoop, scoot, stomp, stoop, topos. | |
-3 letters: comp, coop, coos, coot, cops, cost, cots, mocs, moos, moot, mops, most, mots, oops, oots, opts, poco, poms, post, pots, scop, scot, soot, spot, stop, toms, toom, tops. | |
-4 letters: coo, cop, cos, cot, moc, moo, mop, mos. | |
| Words containing the letters "c-m-o-o-p-s-t" | |
+1 letter: complots, comports, composts, compotes. | |
+2 letters: composite, composted. | |
+3 letters: compactors, components, composited, composites, compositor, composting, ectomorphs, postatomic. | |
+4 letters: chromoplast, compactions, comparators, compatriots, compensator, competitors, completions, compositely, compositing, composition, compositors, consumption, copromoters, corporatism, cosmopolite, homoplastic, mesotrophic, muttonchops, outcompetes, photomosaic, psychomotor, thermoscope, toxoplasmic. | |
+5 letters: chemotropism, chromoplasts, compensation, compensators, compensatory, competitions, compilations, complicitous, comportments, compositions, comptrollers, compunctions, compunctious, compurgators, computations, computerdoms, consumptions, contemptuous, corporatisms, cosmopolitan, cosmopolites, cryptogamous, macropterous, microscopist, monopolistic, monosynaptic, mucoproteins, omnipotences, paronomastic, photochemist, photocompose, photomosaics, phytochromes, postorgasmic, postromantic, proctodaeums, protoplasmic, subcomponent, thermoscopes. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Crosswords 3. Usage: Modern 4. Usage: Commercial | 5. Images: Slideshow 6. Images: Photo Album 7. Quotations: Fiction 8. Quotations: Non-fiction | 9. Usage Frequency 10. Expressions 11. Expressions: Internet 12. Translations: Modern | 13. Translations: Ancient 14. Derivations 15. Rhymes 16. Anagrams | 17. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
