compose
Formscomposes, composing, composed
Often confused with comprise
- 1To produce a literary or musical work through deliberate mental effort.
The young pianist hopes to compose a full symphony before she turns thirty.
Many writers compose more fluently in the early morning.
Similarwrite, create, pen, author, produce
Note
Creative work, and the verb goes both ways. With an object it names the work produced: a speech, a symphony, or verse, as when Alexander Pope hopes to compose "Something in Verse as true as Prose." Without an object it names the activity itself, as in it's difficult to compose without absolute silence. In that case context tells you whether the work is music or words.
- 2To make up or constitute the whole of something.
Representatives from every member nation compose the council that meets each spring.
The museum's permanent collection is composed of gifts from local families.
Similarconstitute, form, comprise
Note
Here the parts do the work and stand as the subject. Isaac Watts wrote in 1741 that "a few useful things […] compose their intellectual possessions." Turn the sentence round and the whole becomes the subject of a passive: a church is composed of its members. Either way, the parts compose and the whole is composed of them. Keep that direction straight and the "comprise" use is easy to avoid.
- 3To form something by merging separate parts into one.
Artists compose collages by gluing many small images together.
The chef composed the dish from local ingredients.
Similarassemble, create, construct, fashion, build
Oppositedismantle, disassemble
Note
The root sense, and the etymology shows it plainly. Latin componere, from com- "together" and ponere "to put, place", came into English through Old French composer and Middle English composen. To compose is literally to put together. The passive be composed of is at home here, as in Thomas Sprat's sermon of 1678: zeal "ought to be composed of the highest degrees of all pious affection."
- 4To calm someone or oneself, freeing them from agitation.
She took a deep breath to compose herself before the interview.
It took her several minutes to compose herself after the bad news.
Similarcalm, steady, collect, settle, control
Oppositeagitate, unsettle, fluster
Note
Usually reflexive: people compose themselves, or their minds and thoughts, more often than they calm someone else. Dryden's Virgil has "Compose thy mind," and a defendant who "couldn't compose herself" shows the same pattern today. The calm comes from putting things in order, an agitated mind set straight. That idea links it closely to the "set in order" meaning.
- 5
- 6To arrange something into proper form and order, putting it into a fit state or condition.
Before the meeting, managers compose their agendas carefully.
The editor composed the scattered notes into a coherent report.
Similararrange, organize, prepare, order, shape
Note
An older, literary sense in which order means settled rather than merely tidy. Milton, in Paradise Lost (1667), asks how "we may / Compose our present evils." Dryden's Virgil writes, "In a peaceful grave my corpse compose." The objects are troubles and bodies, not agendas. The same idea of setting things right lies behind the calming sense and settling a dispute.
- 7To settle an argument, dispute, or disagreement and bring it to a resolution.
The mediator helped the two sides compose their differences.
They finally composed their long-running quarrel.
Similarsettle, resolve, reconcile
Note
The settling sense came with the word itself, since Old French composer already meant "adjust, settle." It takes objects like differences, matters, or a quarrel. It still appears in serious prose, as when Christopher Hitchens writes in Hitch-22 (2010) of trying "to compose matters with the mullahs." In that construction, with introduces the other party to the settlement.
- 8To consist of or include as constituent parts.
Such collections compose dozens of rare manuscripts.
The encyclopedia composes thirty volumes in total.
Similarcomprise, contain, include, encompass
Note
A reversal that careful writers reject, because it makes the whole the subject: a collection "composes" its manuscripts. The standard pattern runs the other way. The whole comprises its parts, and the parts compose the whole. If a sentence begins with the whole, use comprise, consist of, or is composed of. Save compose for sentences that begin with the parts.
Less common meaning
- 9To arrange metal type in a composing stick in order to typeset text for printing.
The apprentice learned to compose pages letter by letter.
Skilled workers composed the newspaper's columns each night by hand.
Note
A printer's word that has become dated. Its tool, the composing stick, keeps the verb in its name, since type was composed in it before printing. Today typeset is the ordinary word for this work. Used on its own, compose is now more likely to be read as writing than as setting type, so add a printing context when you mean the trade sense.
Practice
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Origin
From Middle English composen, from Old French composer ("to compose, compound, adjust, settle"), formed from com- plus poser. This adapted Latin componere ("to put together"), from com- ("together") and ponere ("to put, place").