Replacing Compound: Worsen a Problem, Mix Ingredients, Name a Walled Site

1. Worsen

The plain choice for almost any subject: weather, health, a mood, a relationship. Unlike exacerbate, it also works without an object: the pain worsened. It says only that things got worse, without the piled-on feeling of compound.

Best used when: Nothing new was added; the situation simply got worse.

Heavy rain worsened the flooding downstream.

2. Aggravate

Fits an existing condition that flares up because of something done to it: an injury, a rash, a grievance. Less formal than exacerbate. Informally it also means to annoy a person, which is a different meaning from the one here.

Best used when: An action makes an injury or irritation flare up.

Climbing the stairs aggravated her sore knee.

3. Exacerbate

Formal and common in reports and news. Its object is a problem, tension, shortage or condition, never a person. It sounds more clinical than aggravate, which in casual speech can also mean to annoy someone.

Best used when: Writing about policy, health or economics where a problem gets worse.

Correct: The long delay exacerbated the shortage.

Incorrect: The long delay exasperated the shortage.

Exasperate means to annoy a person greatly, so it cannot take a problem as its object. The first sentence is the corrected version, with exacerbate.

Tone: formal

4. Intensify

Neutral about good or bad: it only says something grew stronger, so it suits a search, a rivalry or a storm as well as a problem. Like worsen, it also works without an object: the storm intensified.

Best used when: Something already present grows in force, good or bad.

Police intensified the search after dark.

5. Heighten

Belongs with things felt or perceived: tension, suspense, awareness, anxiety. Where intensify also suits a search or a storm, heighten sounds odd with physical things or damage.

Best used when: Tension, suspense or awareness rises in a scene or situation.

The dim lighting heightened the sense of dread.

6. Combine

The general verb for putting parts together. Unlike blend, it does not suggest the parts lose their separate identity, and it works with abstract things as well as ingredients.

Best used when: Two or more things are joined and you do not care how thoroughly.

Combine the flour and sugar in a large bowl.

7. Blend

Stresses that the parts merge until you cannot pick them apart: colors, flavors, powders, styles. More thorough than mix, which allows visible lumps and layers.

Best used when: The result should look or taste uniform.

She blended the two powders until the color was even.

8. Mix

Looser than blend: the parts end up together but need not fuse, so a lumpy or streaky result still counts. It is also more everyday than combine, and it is the word people reach for in a kitchen.

Best used when: Stirring or shaking things together in a kitchen or workshop.

Mix the paint thoroughly before you pour it.

9. Mixture

The ordinary noun for the result of combining, whether uniform or lumpy, and used for chemicals, ingredients or feelings. In a chemistry text it is not a substitute for chemical compound, because the parts of a mixture are not chemically bonded.

Best used when: Naming the result of mixing food, materials or emotions.

Her voice held a mixture of relief and embarrassment.

10. Amalgam

Suggests parts drawn from distinct sources and joined into one entity, usually styles, ideas, companies or groups. Narrower and more formal than mixture, and strange for food.

Best used when: Describing an organization or style built from separate origins.

The company is an amalgam of three smaller firms.

Tone: formal

11. Complex

As a noun, it means a set of connected buildings serving one purpose, with no hint of walls or guards. Compound often implies fencing or security, as with an embassy or prison, while complex suits apartments or a sports center.

Best used when: A group of buildings with a shared use and no emphasis on a barrier.

The apartment complex has two pools.

12. Enclosure

Names the walled or fenced space itself rather than the buildings in it. It is the better pick when the barrier is the point, as with livestock, zoo animals or a fenced yard.

Best used when: The fence or wall matters more than what stands inside.

A high wall formed an enclosure around the prison yard.

13. Composite

Describes a thing made from distinct parts and treated as one: a composite material, a composite image. Technical phrases such as compound interest, compound fracture and compound leaf have no substitute, so keep compound there.

Best used when: Parts are visibly different but combined into a single item.

The poster used a composite photograph of five faces.

14. Multipart

Plain and literal: it counts parts and implies nothing more. It suits a form, a series or a process, and is plainer than composite, which suggests the parts were assembled into one object.

Best used when: Describing a question, form or process with several steps.

The application is a multipart form.