comprise
verb/kəmˈpɹaɪz/
Etymology From Middle English comprisen, from Old French compris, past participle of comprendre, from Latin comprehendere, contr. comprendere, past participle comprehensus (“to comprehend”); see comprehend. Compare apprise, reprise, surprise.
1
To be made up of; to consist of (especially a comprehensive list of parts).
- Near-synonyms: subsume, contain, include, embrace, comprehend
- The whole comprises the parts.
3 more examples
- The parts are comprised by the whole.
- Our committee comprises a president, secretary, treasurer and five other members.
- Arsenal were playing without a recognised full-back - their defence comprising four centre-halves - and the lack of width was hindering their progress.2011 December 10, David Ornstein, “Arsenal 1-0 Everton”, in BBC Sport:
2
Passive, Proscribed, Sometimes, Usually To compose; to constitute.
- Near-synonym: make up
- The whole is comprised of the parts.
4 more examples
- The parts comprise the whole.
- 1657, Isaac Barrow, Data (Euclid) (translation), Prop. XXX "Seeing then the angles comprised of equal right lines are equal, we have found the angle FDE equal to the angle ABC."
- Three chairs of the steamer type, all maimed, comprised the furniture of this roof-garden, with (by way of local color) on one of the copings a row of four red clay flower-pots filled with sun-baked dust from which gnarled and rusty stalks thrust themselves up like withered elfin limbs.1914 November, Louis Joseph Vance, “An Outsider […]”, in Munsey’s Magazine, volume LIII, number II, New York, N.Y.: The Frank A[ndrew] Munsey Company, […], published 1915, →OCLC, chapter I (Anarchy), pages 377–378:
- [in 1846 or 1847, Davis K. Carter said,] ["]I have come to deal in practical matters, and to serve notice on you, gentlemen, that we out west, comprising the backbone, not only of Ohio but of the western continent, mean business. A road is to be built from this city [Pittsburgh], through Massillon to Chicago, and in its construction you must either fish or cut bait; now take your choice.["] The Pennsylvania and Ohio railroad was finally begun through the activities of business men from Pennsylvania and Ohio, who attended a great meeting held at Massillon in November, 1847. It was completed as far as Massillon, in 1853.1926 [1847], Bessie V. R. Skinner, quoting Davis K. Carter, Massillon, Once Upon a Time, Independent Publishing Company, page 27:
3
Intellectual property, Law, Patent law To include, contain, or be made up of, defining the minimum elements, whether essential or inessential to define an invention.
- (close-ended)
- Derived terms
- comprisable, comprisal
- Related terms
- comprehensive