contain

verb
con·tain
kən-tānʹ

To hold inside.

Example

“The brown box contains three stacks of books.”

Other meanings

To include as a part.
“Most of the meals they offer contain meat.”
To put constraints upon; to restrain; to confine; to keep within bounds.
“I'm so excited, I can hardly contain myself!”

Synonyms

comprise

Related words

containee
contain multitudes
contain oneself
self-contain

Example sentences

“That word contains four consonants.”
Tatoeba · ddnktr · CC0
“The fuzzy skin of a kiwi contains most of its nutrients.”
Tatoeba · shekitten · CC0

Word history

From Latin "continēre" (to hold or keep together, comprise, contain).

Where this comes from

This definition is adapted from “contain” on Wiktionary, by its contributors; example sentences are from Tatoeba, credited to their authors above; related-word lists use Open English WordNet (CC BY 4.0, based on Princeton WordNet), published under CC BY-SA 4.0. This page is published under the same licence.