Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To consist of; be composed of: "The French got ... French Equatorial Africa, comprising several territories” ( Alex Shoumatoff).
- v. To include; contain: "The word 'politics' ... comprises, in itself, a difficult study of no inconsiderable magnitude” ( Charles Dickens). See Synonyms at include.
- v. Usage Problem To compose; constitute: "Put together the slaughterhouses, the steel mills, the freight yards ... that comprised the city” ( Saul Bellow).
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To comprehend; contain; include; embrace: as, the German empire comprises a number of separate states.
- To press together; gather into a small compass; compress.
- Synonyms To embrace, embody, inclose, encircle.
Wiktionary
- v. informal, considered incorrect To compose, to constitute. See usage note below.
- v. patents To include, contain or embrace, but not implying an exhaustive list.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To comprehend; to include.
WordNet 3.0
- v. be composed of
- v. include or contain; have as a component
- v. form or compose
Etymologies
- From Old French compris, past participle of comprendre, from Latin comprehendere, contr. comprendere, past participle comprehensus ("to comprehend"); see comprehend. Compare apprise, reprise, surprise. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English comprisen, from Old French compris, past participle of comprendre, to include, from Latin comprehendere, comprēndere; see comprehend. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The coins comprise a diverse cross section of coins in circulation at the first part of the 19th Century, including an important group of exceptional quality southern mint gold coins.”
NCS Conserves Coins Recovered from the Steamship New York : Coin Collecting News
“I like a man who knows how to use the word comprise correctly.”
“When combined with missed furniture pickup the calls comprise more than one quarter of all complaint-and-service-related calls to the city's info hotline.”
“Chalcedon (Concil.tom. iv.p. 761 — 2071) comprehend those of Ephesus, (p. 890 — 1189,) which again comprise the synod of Constantinople under Flavian, (p. 930 — 1072;) and at requires some attention to disengage this double involution.”
“The financial terms comprise an up-front payment of $500 million to the Hancock group, led by billionaire Australian businesswoman Gina Rinehart , and the rest in phases--$200 million one year after the completion of the deal and $560 million on the financial closure of the coal project, anticipated to be in 2012.”
“At a time when subtle, literate film comedies seem like an endangered species at best, these titles comprise a welcome breath of rarefied air.”
The Huffington Post: John Farr: Laughing in Style: That Special 'Lubitsch Touch'
“Like a giant slush pile of digitally liberated books, these titles comprise gems of undiscovered brilliance alongside works that might make your eyes bleed.”
“His literary productions, all in Latin, comprise commentaries on the Psalms, on the Apocalypse, on the Gospels of Sundays and Festivals, on the Creed of St. Athanasius, on the Lord's Prayer. and a great number of sermons and homilies, treatises, and devotional writings, such as "De”
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 5: Diocese-Fathers of Mercy
“Primitive terms comprise variables and constants, whereas compound terms are formed by combining terms.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘comprise’.
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BUDG - general terms
Budgetese - not a sexy topic but a very comprehensive list of words and collocations used in EU circles. Budgeting experts please comment and expand.
heading, across-the-board ..., emergency reserve, frontload, mopping-up, performance reserve, positive margin, negative margin, public finances, structural operat..., administrative ex..., management of EU ... and 657 more...
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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CONT - general terms
additionality, audit trail, accounting standards, auditing standards, general audit obj..., a posteriori audit, a priori audit, above board, acceptable error ..., access rights, accountability, accountable entities and 1283 more...
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EN - academic vocabulary
Use these and get promoted
abandon, abandonment, abnormally, abstract, abstraction, abstractly, abstracts, academia, academic, academically, academics, academies and 3119 more...
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IMCO - EU nomenclature
includes words of the "Prodcom list"
veal, valve, used, yak, wax, wan, teak, vat, vas, strip, use, strap and 4515 more...
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multiple meaning words
These words seem very familiar but are awfully-versatile and oftentimes serve senses exceptionally beyond people's presumptions ...
sense, serve, please, say, profile, draw, weather, bear, project, ship, profiler, tune and 140 more...
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EU Buzz - Lisbon Treaty
All words of the Lisbon Treaty
(Persons' names, foreign and grammatical words have been eliminated, MWEs have been split up into individual words. Capitalization has been retained if r...conferral, stateless, person, voting, right, subsidiarity, Latvia, Malta, Slovenia, Lithuania, Finland, Estonia and 2614 more...
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#faveword
Words chosen as favorites for the Twitter hashtag #faveword.
autumnal, grotto, chiaroscuro, sfumato, homunculus, zing, zest, effervescent, bewitch, avuncular, susurrus, Styrofoam and 205 more...
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EU Buzz - single words (1+2+3)
1. Strictly EU terms with special European meaning used only in the EU
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2. Keywords central to the understanding of the EU (people working for the EU are usually able to give thematic...acceleration, action, additionality, administrator, agenda, agricultural, agri-environmental, agriflation, agri-food, applicant, approach, assent and 1325 more...
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Pedantic distinctions
Put the two words next to each other. Pedants of the world pen your pet peeves here!
syntax, grammar, imply, infer, comprise, compose, effect, affect, insure, ensure, uninterested, disinterested and 21 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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Compound words by appearance, not def...
Requirements:
• The word should be a compound.
• Once divided, the individual definitions should not describe the compound itself.
• For sanity's sake, any word that also ha...pinion, electrode, faggot, accordion, display, lotion, lithe, mobile, wonton, spittoon, home, donkey and 10 more...
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Vocab4
acquire, antagonize, competent, comprise, correspond, dilapidated, illustrious, incident, inherit, latitude, loath, maintain and 3 more...
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SAT vocab
abash, abate, abdicate, aberration, abhor, abject, abnegate, abortive, absolve, abstruse, accolade, accost and 175 more...
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Basic English Vocabulary
Very basic words for ESL students.
contemplate, container, consumer, consultant, consensus, conscious, conscience, connection, confusion, confront, conflict, confident and 4334 more...
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my list
executive, oxide, slang, paddy, calamity, pledge, carved, deliberate, vastly, tolerate, simultaneous, ornamental and 114 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for comprise.
Ray94903 Comprise Simple rules for comprise are: the whole comprises the parts. Comprise never takes "of." Oct 25, 2010
zc0000 be made up of : sth is made up of several parts
be composed of : sth is composed of several parts
consist of : sth consits of several parts
comprise : sth comprises several parts
include : sth includes several parts Mar 11, 2010