component

American  

[kuhm-poh-nuhnt, kom-] / kəmˈpoʊ nənt, kɒm- /

noun

• components
  plural

1. a constituent part; element; ingredient.

2. a part of a mechanical or electrical system.

   They checked the pads, rotors, and other components of my car's brake system.

3. Physics. the projection of a vector quantity, as force or velocity, along an axis.

4. Physical Chemistry. one of the set of the minimum number of chemical constituents by which every phase of a given system can be described.

5. Mathematics.

   1. a connected subset of a set, not contained in any other connected subset of the set.

   2. a coordinate of a vector.

6. Linguistics.

   1. one of the major subdivisions of a generative grammar.

      base component;

      transformational component;

      semantic component;

      phonological component.

   2. a feature determined by componential analysis.

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adjective

1. being or serving as an element (in something larger); composing; constituent.

   the component parts of a computer system.

component British  

/ kəmˈpəʊnənt, ˌkɒmpəˈnɛnʃəl /

noun

1. a constituent part or aspect of something more complex

   a component of a car

2. Also called: element.  any electrical device, such as a resistor, that has distinct electrical characteristics and that may be connected to other electrical devices to form a circuit

3. maths

   1. one of a set of two or more vectors whose resultant is a given vector

   2. the projection of this given vector onto a specified line

4. one of the minimum number of chemically distinct constituents necessary to describe fully the composition of each phase in a system See phase rule

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adjective

1. forming or functioning as a part or aspect; constituent

Synonym Usage

See element.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• subcomponent
  noun
• componental
  adjective
• componented
  adjective
• componential
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• components
  plural

Etymology

Origin of component

First recorded in 1555–65; from Latin compōnent- (stem of compōnēns, present participle of compōnere “to put together”), equivalent to com- com- + pōn(ere) “to put” + -ent- -ent

Explanation

It's the Ikea curse: You spend four hours figuring out how to piece together your new furniture, only to be left with one random component, or part, that doesn't seem to fit anywhere. It's not surprising that component is related to a Latin word that means "to put together." You simply can't put something together without all of the correct components. Technically speaking, a component is an element of a system or a part of a machine. But a component can also be a factor or ingredient, such as the components of a decision or the components of a really good chocolate cake.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

component components

Here they plot the rise in the 30-year yield versus the S&P 500 and the energy component of the Bloomberg commodity index, on an impressive triple Y-axis.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 28, 2026

This is partly due to component costs such as Ram skyrocketing in price as AI companies buy up all the parts for their data centres.

From BBC ● Aug. 26, 2026

"This study strengthens the evidence that the universe contains a component of dark matter," says Gallardo.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 25, 2026

"We take on that cost ourselves," he said, adding that rising prices for oil, a key component in plastic, had also not affected the price of Lego's bricks.

From Barron's ● Aug. 25, 2026

That’s a classically sticky advertising line, and stickiness is a critical component in tipping.

From "The Tipping Point" by Malcolm Gladwell

Those components in some cases were sold online through platforms like eBay, before getting equipped into air bags in used cars, the Journal reported.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 27, 2026

Nvidia said Wednesday that its commitments to suppliers to secure components for its AI chips and systems reached $279 billion in its latest quarter, more than doubling from $119 billion the previous quarter.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 27, 2026

Xbox is part of Microsoft, which is one of the companies ploughing the most money into AI infrastructure, which in turn puts the prices of hardware components up.

From BBC ● Aug. 26, 2026

But it, too, relied on cheap components sourced through China.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 26, 2026

To begin with, it was discovered that one of the basic components of Libby’s formula, known as the decay constant, was off by about 3 percent.

From "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson

Related Words

• factor
• ingredient
• item
• peripheral
• piece
• segment
• unit