Composer

How to spell composer

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce composer

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does composer mean?

1. nounA person who writes music, especially as a profession.

Composer in a sentence

• The composer spent two years writing the score for the film.

• As a young composer, she earned a living arranging pieces for local orchestras.

Where does composer come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word traces back to the Latin componere, which meant 'to put together' or 'to arrange', formed from com- 'together' and ponere 'to place or put'. English took the verb 'compose' through Old French composer in the late 1400s, where it carried the sense of arranging parts into a whole, whether words, pictures, or musical notes. The agent noun 'composer', literally 'one who puts things together', settled by the 1590s and quickly attached itself above all to writers of music. The same ponere root sits inside a large family of everyday words such as 'deposit', 'expose', and 'position', all sharing the idea of placing or putting. Knowing that the middle of the word is 'pos' (place), not 'pose' as a separate word, helps fix the spelling, since the agent ending is simply -er and not -or.

How the word is built

• com- (together)
• pos (place/put, from Latin ponere, positus)
• -er (one who does)