Compose
verb ·Common ·Middle school level
Definitions
- 1 To make something by merging parts. transitive
"The editor composed a historical journal from many individual letters."
- 2 make up plans or basic details for wordnet
- 3 To make up the whole; to constitute. transitive
"A church is composed of its members."
- 4 put together out of existing material wordnet
- 5 To comprise. nonstandard, transitive
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- 6 produce a literary work wordnet
- 7 To construct by mental labor; to think up; particularly, to produce or create a literary or musical work. intransitive, transitive
"The orator composed his speech over the week prior."
- 8 write music wordnet
- 9 To calm; to free from agitation. reflexive, sometimes
"Try to compose your thoughts."
- 10 calm (someone, especially oneself); make quiet wordnet
- 11 To arrange the elements of a photograph or other picture.
- 12 form the substance of wordnet
- 13 To settle (an argument, dispute etc.); to come to a settlement.
"By trying his best to compose matters with the mullahs, he had sincerely shown that he did not seek a violent collision […]"
- 14 To arrange in proper form; to reduce to order; to put in proper state or condition.
"In a peaceful grave my corpse compose."
- 15 To arrange (types) in a composing stick for printing; to typeset. dated
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"One can no more write good English than one can compose good music, merely by keeping the rules."
Etymology
From Middle English composen, from Old French composer (“to compose, compound, adjust, settle”), from com- + poser, as an adaptation of Latin componere (“to put together, compose”), from com- (“together”) + ponere (“to put, place”).
Related phrases
More for "compose"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.