Composing

How to spell composing

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce composing

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does composing mean?

1. verbCreating a piece of writing, music, or other arranged work by putting elements together.
2. verbSettling oneself into a calm, controlled state.

Composing in a sentence

• She spent the evening composing a careful reply to the complaint.

• She took a slow breath, composing herself before the interview.

• He was composing a new piece for the orchestra in his studio.

• He stood at the door for a moment, composing himself after the bad news.

Where does composing come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word is the present participle of 'compose', which English took from the Old French composer, meaning 'to put together'. The French form descends from the Latin componere, built from com- 'together' and ponere 'to put or place', so at root composing literally means arranging parts into a whole. A quirk of the spelling is that the French composer also absorbed the unrelated verb poser (from Latin pausare, 'to pause or set down'), which is why the modern stem is spelled 'pose' rather than 'pone'. English began using compose in the 1400s for putting words together on a page, and the musical sense of arranging notes followed in the 1500s. The same componere root survives in 'component', 'composite', and 'compound', all of which share the idea of placing things together.

How the word is built

• com- (together)
• pos/pose (from Latin ponere, to place)
• -ing (present participle suffix)