Abstract We associate with any abstract logic L a family F(L) consisting, intuitively, of the limit ultrapowers which are complete extensions in the sense of L. For every countably generated [ω, ω]-compact logic L, our main applications are: (i) Elementary classes of L can be characterized in terms of ≡L only. (ii) If and are countable models of a countable superstable theory without the finite cover property, then . (iii) There exists the “largest” logic M such that complete extensions in the sense of M and L are the same; moreover M is still [ω, ω]-compact and satisfies an interpolation property stronger than unrelativized ⊿-closure. (iv) If L = Lωω(Qx), then cf(ωx) > ω and λω < ωx, for all λ < ωx. We also prove that no proper extension of Lωω generated by monadic quantifiers is compact. This strengthens a theorem of Makowsky and Shelah. We solve a problem of Makowsky concerning Lκλ-compact cardinals. We partially solve a problem of Makowsky and Shelah concerning the union of compact logics.