composer

American  

[kuhm-poh-zer] / kəmˈpoʊ zər /

noun

• composers
  plural

1. a person or thing that composes.

2. a person who writes music.

3. an author.

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composer British  

/ kəmˈpəʊzə /

noun

1. a person who composes music

2. a person or machine that composes anything, esp type for printing

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• composers
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of composer

First recorded in 1555–65; compose + -er ¹

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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."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

composer composers

Musicians ranging from composer Will Marion Cook to the rapper Tupac Shakur, and former Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. all lived there.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 17, 2026

Closing the book on his own private Scottish fantasy, the composer went home to Germany, leaving behind the land that gave him, and to which he gave back, so much.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026

He served as a composer across TV and film but is best known for his contributions to “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” including the original cut of its high-energy theme song.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 14, 2026

The urban aesthetic was augmented with a bluesy, funky score by composer Jim Lang, inspired by Thelonious Monk, Vince Guaraldi and Beck.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 7, 2026

In the ‘Upstairs, Downstairs’ world of eighteenth-century European nobility, the in-house composer was definitely Downstairs, even one with an international reputation as prestigious as Haydn’s.

From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall

As score composers, they are responsible for the in-game sound and musical themes.

From Barron's ● Oct. 15, 2026

It also featured a new song from French electronic music artists Justice, who were revealed to be the game's original score composers.

From BBC ● Oct. 15, 2026

The track was produced with Egyptian composers Tamer Sakr and Wahid El-Meligy, as well as the multiplatinum Puerto Rican producer Eliel Lind Osorio, who is credited on hit songs “Dile” and “Hasta Abajo.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 1, 2026

A bill, known as AB 2319 and aimed at supporting the industry’s editors, sound mixers, composers and visual effects artists, passed the Senate on Sunday, marking the state’s first-ever stand-alone postproduction tax incentive.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 1, 2026

One of the first named composers worth knowing about was a woman - a spectacularly clever and imaginative German woman, Hildegard of Bingen, who was born in 1098.

From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall

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Related Words

• writer

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