Standard Lemma guide

cf.

verb · 3 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • US: /kəmˈpɛɚ ˌwɪθ/
  • US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • /siːˈɛf/
  • US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • rhymes with -ɛf

1

verb

Meaning 1

Compare; compare to; compare with.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: imperative

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

verb

Meaning 2

See; see also.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: imperative, nonstandard

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

adverb

Meaning 3

compare (used in texts to point the reader to another location in the text)

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: cf

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

From Latin cf., abbreviation of cōnfer (“compare”), imperative of cōnferō (“to compare”).

Across languages

Translations

37 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Bulgarian: сравни (sravni) — compare
  • Chinese Mandarin: 參見 /参见 (cānjiàn) — compare
  • Czech: srov. — compare
  • Danish: jf. — compare
  • Dutch: cf. or vgl. or verg. — compare
  • Esperanto: kp. — compare
  • Faroese: sbr. — compare
  • Faroese: smbr. — compare
  • Finnish: vrt. — compare
  • French: cf. — compare
  • German: vgl. — compare
  • German: cf. — compare
  • German: vergl. — compare
  • Greek: πβ. (pv.) — compare
  • Greek: πρβ. (prv.) — compare
  • Hebrew: השו׳ — compare
  • Hungarian: vö. — compare
  • Icelandic: sbr. — compare
  • Ido: kp. — compare
  • Italian: cfr. — compare
  • Japanese: 参照(せよ) — compare
  • Japanese: 比較(せよ) — compare
  • Latin: cf. — compare
  • Latvian: sal. — compare
  • Lithuanian: plg. — compare
  • Norwegian: jf. — compare
  • Pannonian Rusyn: оп. (op.) — compare
  • Polish: por. — compare
  • Portuguese: cf. — compare
  • Portuguese: cp. — compare
  • Romanian: cf. — compare
  • Russian: ср. (sr.) — compare
  • Spanish: cf. — compare
  • Swedish: jmf. — compare
  • Swedish: jfr — compare
  • Swedish: jfr. — compare
  • Welsh: cf. — compare