composite

American  

[kuhm-poz-it] / kəmˈpɒz ɪt /

adjective

1. made up of disparate or separate parts or elements; compound.

   a composite drawing; a composite philosophy.

2. Botany. belonging to the Compositae.

3. (initial capital letter) noting or pertaining to one of the five classical orders, popular especially since the beginning of the Renaissance but invented by the ancient Romans, in which the Roman Ionic and Corinthian orders are combined, so that four diagonally set Ionic volutes, variously ornamented, rest upon a bell of Corinthian acanthus leaves.

4. Rocketry.

   1. (of a rocket or missile) having more than one stage.

   2. (of a solid propellant) made up of a mixture of fuel and oxidizer.

5. Nautical. noting a vessel having frames of one material and shells and decking of another, especially one having iron or steel frames with shells and decks planked.

6. Mathematics. of or relating to a composite function or a composite number.

---

noun

1. something composite; a compound.

2. Botany. a composite plant.

3. a picture, photograph, or the like, that combines several separate pictures.

verb (used with object)

composited, compositing

1. to make a composite of.

composite British  

/ ˈkɒmpəzɪt /

adjective

1. composed of separate parts; compound

2. of, relating to, or belonging to the plant family Asteraceae

3. maths capable of being factorized or decomposed

   a composite function

4. (sometimes capital) denoting or relating to one of the five classical orders of architecture: characterized by a combination of the Ionic and Corinthian styles See also Doric Tuscan

---

noun

1. something composed of separate parts; compound

2. any plant of the family Asteraceae (formerly Compositae ), typically having flower heads composed of ray flowers (e.g. dandelion), disc flowers (e.g. thistle), or both (e.g. daisy)

3. a material, such as reinforced concrete, made of two or more distinct materials

4. a proposal that has been composited

verb

1. (tr) to merge related motions from local branches of (a political party, trade union, etc) so as to produce a manageable number of proposals for discussion at national level

Other Word Forms

• compositely adverb
• compositeness noun
• hypercomposite adjective
• noncomposite adjective
• noncompositely adverb
• noncompositeness noun

Etymology

Origin of composite

1350–1400; Middle English (< Middle French ) < Latin compositus (past participle of compōnere to put together), equivalent to com- com- + positus placed; posit

Explanation

A composite is something made up of complicated and related parts. A composite photograph of your family might have your eyes, your sister’s nose, your dad’s mouth, and your mother’s chin. Composite comes from the Latin for "putting together." It can be used as a noun or adjective. If you and five friends put together a map showing all the places each of you has ever lived, you’ve created a composite. You could also describe it as a composite map of your lives. Composite is also the name of a family of plants that have many little flowers wound so densely together that it just looks like one flower.

Example Sentences

The Nasdaq composite gained 0.5% and the S&P 500 added 0.4%, with both indexes marking their best four-day run since last May.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 6, 2026

Since the end of February, the three major stock market indices — the Standard & Poor’s 500, the Dow Jones industrials and the Nasdaq composite — have fallen by a few percentage points.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 3, 2026

The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite lurched into correction territory on March 26, meaning it had fallen 10% below its recent high.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 31, 2026

This makes it especially promising for sensing applications and advanced composite materials.

From Science Daily • Mar. 31, 2026

And I'm not sure how well carbon composite is going to take to that.

From "The Martian" by Andy Weir