comprise
Americanverb (used with object)
-
to include or contain.
The Soviet Union comprised several socialist republics.
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to consist of; be composed of.
The advisory board comprises six members.
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to form or constitute.
Seminars and lectures comprised the day's activities.
idioms
verb
-
to include; contain
-
to constitute the whole of; consist of
her singing comprised the entertainment
Usage
The use of of after comprise should be avoided: the library comprises (not comprises of ) 500 000 books and manuscripts
Related Words
See include.
Other Word Forms
- comprisable adjective
- comprisal noun
Etymology
Origin of comprise
First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English comprisen, from Middle French compris (past participle of comprendre ), from Latin comprehēnsus; see comprehension
Explanation
When something comprises other things, it is made up of them or formed from them. The periodic table comprises 118 elements, because the whole comprises the parts. In its traditional use, the word comprise is the opposite of compose: if A comprises X, Y, and Z, then X, Y, and Z compose A. But because compose and comprise sound so much alike, people have long confused the two. So now you often hear things like "The band is comprised of a guitarist, a bassist, and a hairy drummer," whereas sticklers would prefer "is composed of" in that sentence. The word is undergoing a usage shift, making it just as hairy as that drummer!
Vocabulary lists containing comprise
List 1
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Hatchet
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Commonly Confused Words, List 1
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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.
In the classic market-cap-weighted version of the S&P 500, the top 10 names comprise nearly 40% of the index.
From Barron's • Apr. 15, 2026
The biggest tech companies still comprise around a third of the S&P 500’s overall value, and continue to power around a fifth of its overall earnings growth.
From Barron's • Apr. 9, 2026
Though much of southern Lebanon is predominantly Shiite, Kfar Chouba and its neighbors comprise a pocket of Christian, Druze and Sunni Muslim communities.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 7, 2026
In the growth sector, index funds hold large positions in tech companies that thrive by creating demand for their products, and the winners offset the losers that also comprise the index.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 27, 2026
Why, as Arthur Eddington liked to ask, do the nuclei that comprise my elbow not slide effortlessly through the nuclei that comprise the table?
From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan
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.
