constituent

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. adj. Serving as part of a whole; component: a constituent element.
2. adj. Empowered to elect or designate.
3. adj. Authorized to make or amend a constitution: a constituent assembly.
4. n. A constituent part; a component. See Synonyms at element.
5. n. A resident of a district or member of a group represented by an elected official.
6. n. One that authorizes another to act as a representative; a client.
7. n. Grammar A functional unit of a grammatical construction, as a verb, noun phrase, or clause.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. Constituting or existing as a necessary component or ingredient; forming or composing as a necessary part; component; elementary: as, oxygen and hydrogen are the constituent parts of water.
2. Having the power of constituting or appointing, or of electing to public office: as, a constituent body.
3. n. One who or that which constitutes or forms, or establishes or determines.
4. n. That which constitutes or composes as a part, or a necessary part; a formative element or ingredient.
5. n. One who constitutes another his agent; one who empowers another to transact business for him, or appoints another to an office in which the person appointed represents him as his agent.
6. n. One who elects or assists in electing another to a public office; more generally, any inhabitant of the district represented by an elective officer, especially by one elected to a legislative body: so called with reference to such officer.

Wiktionary

1. adj. being a part, or component of a whole
2. adj. authorized to make a constitution
3. n. a part, or component of a whole
4. n. The person or thing which constitutes, determines, or constructs.
5. n. A resident of a place represented by an elected official.
6. n. law One who appoints another to act for him as attorney in fact.
7. n. grammar A functional element of a phrase or clause.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. adj. Serving to form, compose, or make up; elemental; component.
2. adj. Having the power of electing or appointing.
3. n. The person or thing which constitutes, determines, or constructs.
4. n. That which constitutes or composes, as a part, or an essential part; a component; an element.
5. n. One for whom another acts; especially, one who is represented by another in a legislative assembly; -- correlative to representative.
6. n. (Law) A person who appoints another to act for him as attorney in fact.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. (grammar) a word or phrase or clause forming part of a larger grammatical construction
2. n. an artifact that is one of the individual parts of which a composite entity is made up; especially a part that can be separated from or attached to a system
3. n. something determined in relation to something that includes it
4. n. a member of a constituency; a citizen who is represented in a government by officials for whom he or she votes
5. adj. constitutional in the structure of something (especially your physical makeup)
6. n. an abstract part of something