Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To be the elements or parts of; compose: Copper and tin constitute bronze.
- v. To amount to; equal: " Rabies is transmitted through a bite; . . . patting a rabid animal in itself does not constitute exposure” ( Malcolm W. Browne).
- v. To set up or establish according to law or provision: a body that is duly constituted under the charter.
- v. To found (an institution, for example).
- v. To enact (a law or regulation).
- v. To appoint to an office, dignity, function, or task; designate.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To set; fix; establish.
- To enter into the formation of, as a necessary part; make what it is; form; make.
- To appoint, depute, or elect to an office or employment; make and empower: as, a sheriff is constituted a conservator of the peace; A has constituted B his attorney or agent.
Wiktionary
- v. To cause to stand; to establish; to enact.
- v. To make up; to compose; to form.
- v. To appoint, depute, or elect to an office; to make and empower.
- n. obsolete An established law.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To cause to stand; to establish; to enact.
- v. To make up; to compose; to form.
- v. To appoint, depute, or elect to an office; to make and empower.
- n. obsolete An established law.
WordNet 3.0
- v. set up or lay the groundwork for
- v. to compose or represent:
- v. create and charge with a task or function
- v. form or compose
Etymologies
- Middle English constituten, from Latin cōnstituere, cōnstitūt-, to set up : com-, com- + statuere, to set up; see stā- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“We can dick around over what types of physical or mental pain constitute torture, but there doesn't seem like too much debate that "torture" means "something that is really really painful that would be used in extreme (or under no) circumstances.”
“That means the 24 Republicans need to win constitute less than a third of those.”
The Washington Post: How grim is the House map for Dems? Very.
“Since when does the consumption of saliva or perhaps vomit is a better term constitute the violation of “the prime directive”?”
“Similarly, Carey is right on the ball when he points out that the highbrow arts for want of a better term constitute a glorious opportunity for certain sections of the community to 'demonstrate', i.e. assert, their own superiority over the mere plebs who prefer Coronation Street to Hedda Gabler.”
“Brown and Joseph L. Goldstein constitute founding stones for our present knowledge concerning the cholesterol metabolism.”
“But, as we see clearly in this last case, when the relation and not the terms constitute the object, we have, if there is beauty at all, a beauty of form, not of expression; for the more mathematical the charm of music is the more form and the less expression do we see in it.”
“The two works thus entitled constitute a more or less exact autobiography of the writer of them, from the date of his birth to the end of August, 1825.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘constitute’.
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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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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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Orwellian Purism
Words and phrases George Orwell criticizes in his essay 'Politics and the English Language'.
ring the changes on, take up the cudge..., toe the line, ride roughshod over, stand shoulder to..., play into the han..., no axe to grind, grist to the mill, fishing in troubl..., on the order of t..., Achilles’ heel, swan song and 162 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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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...
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my dictionary
able, abnormally, abroad, absent, abstract, acceptable, acceptance, access, accessible, accession, according to, account and 4551 more...
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Units Of Language
Word:
-a unit of language consisting of one or more spoken sounds or their written representation, that functions as a principal carrier of meaning.sulk, promenade, skulk, idle, subsequently, moody, paroxysm, felony, anent, generic, hallucinogen, synaesthesia and 215 more...
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Learned words
Words which are highly likely to be found in the work of learned writers.
ailurophile, labyrinthine, lagniappe, colleague, anechoic, reglets, fluctuations, scalar, implicit, constitute, mortification, ambassadors and 629 more...
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English
vorciferous, vituperative, vitriolic, vitiation, vitiated, virulent, venerate, vanguard, viands, unimpeachable, unctuous, unanimity and 398 more...
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Words of Standing
steed, stool, estancia, stage, stance, staunch, stanch, stanchion, stanza, stative, stator, stay and 180 more...
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astrosfan's Words
pantaloons, schadenfreude, astonishing, eve, static, freeze, luscious, voluptuous, stagnant, mimic, speed, vespertillinoid and 302 more...
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legal words
inchoate, incarceration, judgment, sentence, attempt, finding, imprisonment, due process, certification, probable cause, abnormality, whereas and 59 more...
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Creating
Vocabulary for developing objectives and test items.
Blooms Taxonomy Level: Synthesiscombine, compile, compose, constitute, construct, create, derive, design, develop, devise, document, formulate and 15 more...
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Tute Your Horn
Words containing "tute"--gives me practice, since I nearly always type this string of letters incorrectly on the first try.
institute, destitute, restitute, reconstitute, constitute, astute, statute, tutee, tutelage, tutelary, tutelina, tutenag and 5 more...
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phil vocab 1
utility, privation, hedonism, creed, inveterate, contemptuous, swine, ascribe, ignoramus, appellation, assailant, imputation and 38 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for constitute.
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