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.

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noun

composites plural

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

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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

Derived Forms

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

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• composites
  plural

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; see 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

See Examples For:

composite composites composited compositing

U.S. stocks bounced back, with the Nasdaq composite gaining more than 2% as chip stocks rebounded and Microsoft shares surged.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 30, 2026

Foulkes said Mercury replaced some metal components with composite or polymer materials, and came up with aluminum alloys that maximized strength while remaining relatively lightweight.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 27, 2026

The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 both lost around 1%, while worries about runaway artificial-intelligence spending by big tech companies dragged the Nasdaq composite down more than 2%.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026

Over the past five sessions, the Nasdaq composite fell 2.1%, while the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.6% and 0.4%, respectively.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026

And behind that was a composite toolbox, the opening of the lid sealed with black electrical tape.

From "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy

The airframe of a jet fighter like an F-35 is mostly constructed from composites, aluminum, and titanium.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 17, 2026

I was somewhat disappointed to learn that Gomez’s paintings are not based on spontaneous discoveries but on composites of photos he’s taken around the city.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 16, 2026

The “industry demand backdrop is red hot,” wrote William Blair analyst Louie DiPalma on Thursday, adding that Seemann is a leader in advanced composites.

From Barron's ● Jan. 22, 2026

It was the first commercial plane to be built primarily of composites such as carbon fibre, rather than aluminium, in order to reduce weight.

From BBC ● Jun. 29, 2025

Ceramics, composites, and other substitutes are fine as far as they go, but they do only a tiny part of the job.

From The Universe — or Nothing by Moldeven, Meyer

She does concede now that some timelines have been altered and characters composited.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 29, 2023

Many minor characters from Dickens’ book are composited or eliminated altogether—and with good reason, since otherwise the cast list would be at least double the size.

From Slate ● Aug. 28, 2020

The finished piece is an intricate tapestry of figures who were digitally composited together – bringing people together virtually, a fitting strategy in the epicenter of social media.

From The Guardian ● May 31, 2019

Right: True Tone in yellow light composited into the blue light image.

From The Verge ● Jul. 13, 2018

On August 15, 1950, leaf samples for chemical analyses were taken from each tree in all replications and composited by treatments into six samples.

From Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the Forty-Second Annual Meeting Urbana, Illinois, August 28, 29 and 30, 1951 by Northern Nut Growers Association

Uelsmann became influential in the 1960s by compositing images using multiple enlargers, which are specialized transparency projectors used to produce photographic prints from negatives.

From Seattle Times ● Apr. 6, 2022

The featurettes include words from the director, production designer Jess Gonchor, visual effect supervisor Scott Farrar, compositing supervisor Chris Balog, cinematographer Polly Morgan, to name a few, and all of the primary cast.

From Washington Times ● Aug. 26, 2021

Most pesticides and herbicides are broken down by heat and microbes during the compositing process and the pesticide residue in the final compost is negligible.

From Salon ● Jun. 27, 2021

The philosophy for the VFX was rooted in in-camera shooting — to harness compositing or CG only when necessary.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 23, 2021

That was too wonderful, Mamma, everything happening in a vast room on one floor; compositing, typewriting, printing, and sorting.

From Elizabeth Visits America by Glyn, Elinor