comprise

(kəm-prīz')
tr.v., -prised, -pris·ing, -pris·es.

1. To consist of; be composed of: "The French got ... French Equatorial Africa, comprising several territories" (Alex Shoumatoff).
2. To include; contain: "The word 'politics' ... comprises, in itself, a difficult study of no inconsiderable magnitude" (Charles Dickens). See synonyms at include.
3. Usage Problem. To compose; constitute: "Put together the slaughterhouses, the steel mills, the freight yards ... that comprised the city" (Saul Bellow).

[Middle English comprisen, from Old French compris, past participle of comprendre, to include, from Latin comprehendere, comprēndere. See comprehend.]

comprisable com·pris'a·ble adj.

USAGE NOTE   The traditional rule states that the whole comprises the parts and the parts compose the whole. In strict usage: The Union comprises 50 states. Fifty states compose (or constitute or make up) the Union. Even though careful writers often maintain this distinction, comprise is increasingly used in place of compose, especially in the passive: The Union is comprised of 50 states. Our surveys show that opposition to this usage is abating. In the 1960s, 53 percent of the Usage Panel found this usage unacceptable; in 1996, only 35 percent objected. See Usage Notes at include.

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1. Comprise is often confused with compose, consist, and constitute. All four words are used to describe how parts make up a whole, but they start from different ends of the equation. Comprise has the whole as its subject and its parts as the object, e.g. The top floor comprises three bedrooms and a bathroom. Consist of takes the same perspective, and one could equally say The top floor consists of three bedrooms and a bathroom, although it is more usual to use consist of with reference to ideas and concepts rather than physical things. It would be incorrect to reverse the construction with comprise in the form ☒ Three bedrooms and a bathroom comprise the top floor. The correct words to use here are compose, constitute, or (more informally) make up. See also include.

2. It is even less correct to confuse comprise with consist and adopt a hybrid construction comprise of or be comprised of. Examples of correct uses:

Love comprises among other things a desire for the well-being and spiritual freedom of the one who is loved—Muriel Spark, 1984

Our opposing team comprised school friends Arnie, 27, a teacher, and Danny, 26, a film director—Evening Standard, 2007.

Examples of incorrect uses:

Seven boys comprised the choir—Garrison Keillor, 1985

Rivers in this area are mainly comprised of domestic and industrial effluent, and many have been fishless in living memory—K. Hawkins, 1993

As this team of scientists was comprised entirely of men the experiment necessarily involved letting the male subjects design computerised images of their ideal women—Observer, 2007.

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verb

To have as a part: comprehend, contain, embody, embrace, encompass, have, include, involve, subsume, take in. See include/exclude.

v

Definition: make up, consist of
Antonyms: except, exclude, fail, fall short, lack, need, want

This entry contains information applicable to United States law only.

To embrace, cover, or include; to confine within; to consist of.

In the law governing patents — grants of an exclusive right or privilege to make, use, or sell an invention or product for a term of years— the term comprise indicates inclusion rather than limitation. When a patent claim states that a particular product is comprised of certain elements, this means that other elements may also be present.

As used in the devise of land, comprise means to contain or embrace. A plot of land may be comprised of a certain number of acres.

IN BRIEF: To consist of.

Did you know that bats comprise almost one quarter of all known mammal species?

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For a list of words related to comprise, see:

• Order, Hierarchy, and Systems - comprise: (vb) constitute; include within scope; be made up of

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See words rhyming with "comprise."

  See crossword solutions for the clue Comprise.

Dansk (Danish)
v. tr. - omfatte, indeholde, udgøre

Nederlands (Dutch)
bevatten, bestaan uit

Français (French)
v. tr. - comprendre, contenir, composer, constituer

Deutsch (German)
v. - bestehen aus, umfassen

Ελληνική (Greek)
v. - περιλαμβάνω, αποτελούμαι από

Italiano (Italian)
comprendere, costituire

Português (Portuguese)
v. - compreender, constar de, condensar

Русский (Russian)
включать в себя, состоять из

Español (Spanish)
v. tr. - comprender, constar de

Svenska (Swedish)
v. - omfatta, inbegripa

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
包含, 构成

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
v. tr. - 包含, 構成

한국어 (Korean)
v. tr. - 함유하다, 의미하다, 전체를 형성하다

日本語 (Japanese)
v. - …から成る, 構成する, 含む

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(فعل) ضم, شمل, تضمن, احتوى على‏

עברית (Hebrew)
v. tr. - ‮כלל, היה מורכב מ-‬

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