component

American  

[kuhm-poh-nuhnt, kom-] / kəmˈpoʊ nənt, kɒm- /

noun

• components
  plural

1. 

   a constituent part; element; ingredient.

2. a part of a mechanical or electrical system.

   They checked the pads, rotors, and other components of my car's brake system.

3. Physics. the projection of a vector quantity, as force or velocity, along an axis.

4. Physical Chemistry. one of the set of the minimum number of chemical constituents by which every phase of a given system can be described.

5. Mathematics.

   1. a connected subset of a set, not contained in any other connected subset of the set.

   2. a coordinate of a vector.

6. Linguistics.

   1. one of the major subdivisions of a generative grammar.

      base component;

      transformational component;

      semantic component;

      phonological component.

   2. a feature determined by componential analysis.

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adjective

1. being or serving as an element (in something larger); composing; constituent.

   the component parts of a computer system.

component British  

/ kəmˈpəʊnənt /

noun

1. a constituent part or aspect of something more complex

   a component of a car

2. Also called: element. any electrical device, such as a resistor, that has distinct electrical characteristics and that may be connected to other electrical devices to form a circuit

3. maths

   1. one of a set of two or more vectors whose resultant is a given vector

   2. the projection of this given vector onto a specified line

4. one of the minimum number of chemically distinct constituents necessary to describe fully the composition of each phase in a system See phase rule

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adjective

1. forming or functioning as a part or aspect; constituent

Synonym Usage

See element.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• subcomponent
  noun
• componental
  adjective
• componented
  adjective
• componential
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• components
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of component

First recorded in 1555–65; from Latin compōnent- (stem of compōnēns, present participle of compōnere “to put together”), equivalent to com- com- + pōn(ere) “to put” + -ent- -ent

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Explanation

It's the Ikea curse: You spend four hours figuring out how to piece together your new furniture, only to be left with one random component, or part, that doesn't seem to fit anywhere. It's not surprising that component is related to a Latin word that means "to put together." You simply can't put something together without all of the correct components. Technically speaking, a component is an element of a system or a part of a machine. But a component can also be a factor or ingredient, such as the components of a decision or the components of a really good chocolate cake.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

component components

“It’s kind of egregious,” said Mscichowski, who expected a larger premium or even a cash component to the deal.

From MarketWatch ● Nov. 2, 2026

Courts and regulators worldwide have limited Apple’s ability to charge developers big fees to distribute apps through its App Store, the biggest component of the company’s services segment.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 2, 2026

Wireless power transmission systems and external electronic controllers are commercially established, meaning the team would not need to develop every component from scratch.

From Science Daily ● Nov. 2, 2026

On Thursday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent tried to downplay recent concerns about neocloud firms, calling them "a small component of the overall ecosystem, external" on CNBC.

From BBC ● Nov. 1, 2026

Here on Mars, supercooling is done by pumping air to a component outside the Hab.

From "The Martian" by Andy Weir

Those components are essentially computer chip technology that allows Apple's devices to operate more quickly, most of which Apple has manufactured through TSMC, which is based in Taiwan.

From BBC ● Nov. 3, 2026

In early March, Nvidia announced a multiyear purchase commitment for Lumentum’s advanced laser components.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 2, 2026

The country is a tech powerhouse, home to Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, two of the world's three biggest makers of memory chips -- components in huge demand thanks to the AI boom.

From Barron's ● Nov. 2, 2026

Cells use it to break down worn-out or defective components so that potentially harmful material does not accumulate.

From Science Daily ● Nov. 1, 2026

As far as Aristotle was concerned, as we saw in Chapter 3, causal explanations had four components: the formal cause, the final cause, the material cause and the efficient cause.

From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton

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Related Words

• factor
• ingredient
• item
• peripheral
• piece
• segment
• unit

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