comprise
Americanverb (used with object)
-
comprises,
present (3rd person singular)
-
comprised,
past participle, past
-
comprising
present participle
-
to include or contain.
The Soviet Union comprised several socialist republics.
-
to consist of; be composed of.
The advisory board comprises six members.
-
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
Synonym Usage
See include.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
comprisesimple
-
comprisessimple
-
have comprisedperfect
-
has comprisedperfect
-
am comprisingprogressive
-
are comprisingprogressive
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is comprisingprogressive
-
have been comprisingperfect progressive
-
has been comprisingperfect progressive
Past
-
comprisedsimple
-
had comprisedperfect
-
was comprisingprogressive
-
were comprisingprogressive
-
had been comprisingperfect progressive
Future
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.
See Examples For:
Big Caring said Wednesday that the offering will comprise up to 1.9 billion shares, equivalent to 25.5% of its enlarged share capital.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 14, 2026
Roughly 85 percent of water systems serve communities of fewer than 50,000, communities that together comprise less than 10 percent of the entire U.S. population.
From Slate ● Aug. 19, 2026
"Those 5,000 people comprise a community. Not just men and women under stress. It's a community under stress."
From BBC ● Aug. 18, 2026
U.S. revenues now comprise 81% of the overall business, up from 73% last year, Palantir CFO David Glazer told MarketWatch.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 3, 2026
The pages that comprise it are printed with Shakespearean sonnets.
From "The Night Circus" by Erin Morgenstern
Undergraduate education comprises three elements: students, teachers and classes.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 8, 2026
Richard Booth, station manager for Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service, told the BBC the building, which comprises several businesses and residential flats, was "not safe to go into".
From BBC ● Oct. 6, 2026
A third floor comprises the master bedroom, surrounded by three decks.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 6, 2026
As Herzog moves the sisters between reality and film’s dreamy latter half, he plunges into the fizzy static that comprises their cosmic connection, examining their solitude as only he can.
From Salon ● Sep. 28, 2026
In Newspeak it is called doublethink, although doublethink comprises much else as well.
From "1984" by George Orwell
The team is comprised of two Nasa astronauts, a Russian cosmonaut and a Canadian astronaut whose wife is expecting their third child two months into the mission.
From BBC ● Oct. 1, 2026
Lorena Gonzalez, president of California Labor Federation, said Regan’s union is overwhelmingly comprised of women and women of color, who just reelected him to a position he’s held for 16 years.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 11, 2026
According to data from Circana, they comprised 1.6% of women’s total footwear sales for the 12 months ending in June; that was a bit up from 1.4% a year ago.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 15, 2026
In Trump Media’s first-ever earnings call on Monday, Interim Chief Executive Kevin McGurn said the early sign-ups comprised primarily high-frequency trading firms paying between $60,000 and $100,000 a month.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 10, 2026
Despite recent efforts to locate the title in the twentieth century, they comprised, by any informed and fair-minded standard, the greatest generation of political talent in American history.
From "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation" by Joseph J. Ellis
Last year, Anthropic spent $7.33 billion on compute and infrastructure, comprising over half of its $12.65 billion in total operating expenses.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 29, 2026
The average pay for a starting specialist—a positional grouping comprising mostly kickers and punters—in a Power Four football conference this season.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 12, 2026
The vast Theban necropolis, comprising an area of around 10km², was Egypt’s main royal and elite cemetery for half a millennium, from ca.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 10, 2026
It appears, for instance, on the website of the Partnership for America’s Health Care Future, a lobbying organization comprising health insurers and pro-business groups such as local chambers of commerce.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 3, 2026
The Populists took direct aim at the conservatives, who were known as comprising a party of privilege, and they achieved a stunning series of political victories throughout the region.
From "The New Jim Crow" by Michelle Alexander
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
