composer
Americannoun
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a person who composes music
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a person or machine that composes anything, esp type for printing
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of composer
Explanation
A composer is an artist who writes music to be played or performed by musicians. A classical composer might work by writing out musical notation and trying things out on the piano. If you're a composer, you most likely write classical, jazz, music for film, or another type of primarily instrumental music, without lyrics. A writer of popular or rock music is more likely to be called a "songwriter." A composer might compose symphonies as a profession, or write short tunes as a hobby. In Old French, composer means "put together, arrange, or write," from com-, "with," and poser, "to place."
Vocabulary lists containing composer
Music - Introductory
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Academy Awards, List 3
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Music - Middle School
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
In a statement to Entertainment Weekly, writer and composer Richard O'Brien, who co-wrote the musical and film, remembered the actor as "a wonderful man by nature who was also a wonderful performer".
From BBC ● Aug. 27, 2026
Carlos Simon has been the NSO’s composer in residence for the last five years, and Noseda has revived and recorded an essential album of works by George Walker.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 20, 2026
He can’t channel a direct personal relationship with the composer, as did Bud Powell and Barry Harris.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 19, 2026
“Everything you hear is him, is his orchestration, his arrangement,” said Barton. who was introduced to Hopkins 20 years ago by composer Harry Gregson-Williams.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 11, 2026
Joseph Goebbels, the composer of blustery Nazi propaganda, had been issuing nonsense statements for years.
From "Salt to the Sea" by Ruta Sepetys
At one point, an exasperated Wataka pulled out his phone to prove that the composers had been dead for generations.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 5, 2026
The regulator quickly confirmed that the works were by composers who really were dead and no fees were required.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 5, 2026
Amid all the fireworks and fanfare sure to mark the nation’s semiquincentennial this weekend, it’s worth remembering how sculptors, writers, composers and more have channeled the American character in works from throughout this country’s history.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 3, 2026
Yet despite several of these being substantial works by some of our most noted and venturesome composers, few bicentennial commissions have survived.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 2, 2026
The other great composers of Western music lived during other periods: Bach and Handel were Baroque era composers, for example; Brahms and Wagner, Romantic53 ; and Ravel and Debussy, Impressionist.
From "Understanding Basic Music Theory" by Catherine Schmidt-Jones and Russel Jones
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
