composition
Americannoun
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the act of combining parts or elements to form a whole.
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the resulting state or product.
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manner of being composed; structure.
This painting has an orderly composition.
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makeup; constitution.
His moral composition was impeccable.
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an aggregate material formed from two or more substances.
a composition of silver and tin.
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a short essay written as a school exercise.
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the act or process of producing a literary work.
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an academic course for teaching the techniques of clear, expository writing.
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the art of putting words and sentences together in accordance with the rules of grammar and rhetoric.
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a piece of music.
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the art of composing music.
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Fine Arts. the organization or grouping of the different parts of a work of art so as to achieve a unified whole.
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Grammar. the formation of compounds or derivatives.
the composition of “aircraft” from “air” and “craft.”
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a settlement by mutual agreement.
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an agreement or compromise, especially one by which a creditor or group of creditors accepts partial payment from a debtor.
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a sum of money so paid.
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Printing.
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the setting up of type for printing.
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Also called pagination. the makeup of pages for printing.
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Mathematics. the process of making a composite function of two given functions.
noun
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the act of putting together or making up by combining parts or ingredients
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something formed in this manner or the resulting state or quality; a mixture
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the parts of which something is composed or made up; constitution
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a work of music, art, or literature
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the harmonious arrangement of the parts of a work of art in relation to each other and to the whole
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a piece of writing undertaken as an academic exercise in grammatically acceptable writing; an essay
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printing the act or technique of setting up type
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linguistics the formation of compound words
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logic the fallacy of inferring that the properties of the part are also true of the whole, as every member of the team has won a prize, so the team will win a prize
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a settlement by mutual consent, esp a legal agreement whereby the creditors agree to accept partial payment of a debt in full settlement
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the sum so agreed
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chem the nature and proportions of the elements comprising a chemical compound
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of composition
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English composicioun, from Anglo-French, from Latin compositiōn-, stem of compositiō “arrangement, placement together”; equivalent to composite + -ion
Explanation
Composition is another word for writing — the act of writing or the piece of writing that results. It also refers to what something is made of. The word composition comes from the Latin componere, meaning "put together" and its meaning remains close to this. Writing classes are often called composition classes, and writing music is also called composition. This can also describe things besides writing that are "put together." You could say an abstract painting has an interesting composition. Any mixture of ingredients can be called a composition. Geologists study the composition of the earth: what it's made of and how it formed.
Vocabulary lists containing composition
Jim Burke's Academic Vocabulary List
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TEKS ELAR Academic Vocabulary List (5th-7th grades)
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Stroke of Genius: Words About Painting
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The agency said samples of the foamy substance, as well as soil and water from a nearby stream, had been collected for laboratory tests to determine their composition and potential environmental impact.
From BBC ● Jul. 22, 2026
Cherubim hopes to identify the atmosphere's complete chemical composition and eventually determine whether the planet has surface oceans or other features connected with habitability.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 21, 2026
How does its composition relate to the conventions of portraiture and genre painting?
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 17, 2026
Greater diversity is generally considered a feature of a resilient and healthy gut microbiome, although the ideal microbial composition can vary between individuals.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 17, 2026
Hana and Hadia get an idea to change the carefully organized composition of the loot bags, to add some pizzazz to the whole thing.
From "Saints and Misfits" by S.K. Ali
Other compositions on the album draw on memories of Port Talbot, childhood visits with his grandfather, the cinema that first caught his imagination, and the people closest to him.
From BBC ● Jul. 10, 2026
Last cycle, seven states had their most expensive judicial elections ever, including Montana and Kentucky, states with partisan compositions more like Kansas.
From Slate ● Jul. 8, 2026
She then produced a series of compositions from her findings using city resources and personnel, allowing the artworks to enter the same archival system they were investigating as official public records.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 7, 2026
They also tested different crustal compositions and temperature conditions before calculating how much fractured, water permeable crust each impact produced.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 2, 2026
Raga-s are made up of short characteristic patterns that often show up in compositions.
From "Music and the Child" by Natalie Sarrazin
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.