- to hold or be capable of holding or including within a fixed limit or area: this contains five pints
- to keep (one's feelings, behaviour, etc) within bounds; restrain
- to consist of; comprise: the book contains three different sections
- to prevent (enemy forces) from operating beyond a certain level or area
- to be a multiple of, leaving no remainder: 6 contains 2 and 3
- to have as a subset
WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2026
con•tain /kənˈteɪn/USA pronunciation
v. [~ + object]
WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2026- [not: be + ~-ing] to hold or include within its volume or area: This glass contains water.
- to have as contents or parts;
include:[not: be + ~-ing]That food contains some dangerous chemicals. - to be capable of holding;
have capacity for:[not: be + ~-ing]The bottle contained only a quart. - [not: be + ~-ing] to be equal to: A quart contains two pints.
- to keep under proper control;
restrain: He could not contain his amusement. - to prevent or hold back the advance, spread, or influence of: worked night and day to contain the epidemic.
- contain, hold, and accommodate express the idea that something is designed in such a way that something else can exist or be placed within it. contain refers to what is actually within a certain container. hold emphasizes the idea of keeping something within bounds; it refers also to the greatest amount or number that can be kept within a given container. accommodate means to contain comfortably or conveniently, or to meet the needs of a certain number. A plane that accommodates fifty passengers may be able to hold sixty, but at a given time may contain only thirty.
con•tain
(kən tān′),USA pronunciation v.t.
con•tain′a•ble, adj.
- to hold or include within its volume or area:This glass contains water. This paddock contains our best horses.
- to be capable of holding;
have capacity for:The room will contain 75 persons safely. - to have as contents or constituent parts;
comprise;
include. - to keep under proper control;
restrain:He could not contain his amusement. - to prevent or limit the expansion, influence, success, or advance of (a hostile nation, competitor, opposing force, natural disaster, etc.):to contain an epidemic.
- to succeed in preventing the spread of:efforts to contain water pollution.
- [Math.](of a number) to be a multiple of;
be divisible by, without a remainder:Ten contains five. - to be equal to:A quart contains two pints.
- Latin continēre, equivalent. to con- con- + tenēre to hold (see tenet)
- Anglo-French contener, Old French contenir
- Middle English conte(y)nen 1250–1300
- 1. Contain, accommodate, hold, express the idea that something is so designed that something else can exist or be placed within it. Contain refers to what is actually within a given container. Hold emphasizes the idea of keeping within bounds; it refers also to the greatest amount or number that can be kept within a given container. Accommodate means to contain comfortably or conveniently, or to meet the needs of a certain number. A passenger plane that accommodates 50 passengers may be able to hold 60, but at a given time may contain only 30. 3. embody, embrace.
Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::
contain /kənˈteɪn/ vb (transitive)
'contain' also found in these entries (note: many are not synonyms or translations):
accommodate
- alcohol
- alliterate
- association
- Avogadro's law
- baking powder
- bento
- Blok
- box
- brace
- bronchus
- capacity
- carbamate
- carbohydrate
- carbonate
- chromate
- Coahuila
- coca
- cola nut
- complex fraction
- comprise
- cone
- content
- continent
- continual
- continuous
- countenance
- cyanide
- cyto-
- deckle
- dichromate
- empyrean
- enclose
- ethylene series
- fission-track dating
- flavoprotein
- gouache
- handbag
- horehound
- house
- housing
- hydracid
- imide
- include
- inorganic
- involve
- isotope
- kettle
- magic mushroom
- accept