Compose

How to spell compose

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce compose

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does compose mean?

1. verbTo create a piece of music, writing, or art by putting elements together.
2. verbTo form or make up the whole of something; to constitute its parts.
3. verbTo make oneself calm and in control of one's feelings.

Compose in a sentence

• She sat down to compose a letter of complaint to the airline.

• Twelve members compose the full committee.

• She paused to compose herself before the interview.

• The students were asked to compose a short piece for piano.

• Hydrogen and oxygen compose a molecule of water.

• He took a breath to compose his nerves before speaking.

Where does compose come from?

Language of origin: French

The word arrived in English in the late 1400s from the Old French composer, meaning 'to put together' or 'to arrange'. The French verb descended from the Latin componere, formed from com- 'together' and ponere 'to place or put', so the literal idea was simply placing parts together to make a whole. Along the way the Latin past participle compositus also gave English 'composite' and 'compost', both of which share that sense of things heaped or set together. Because the French ending was reshaped on the verb poser ('to place'), English ended up with the spelling 'pose' rather than the Latin 'pone', which is exactly why the word is compose and not 'compone'. The musical sense, of putting notes together into a work, and the calming sense, of arranging one's own feelings into order, both grow naturally from that original idea of fitting elements together.

How the word is built

• com- (together)
• pose (to place, put), from Latin componere reshaped on French poser