Comprise

How to spell comprise

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce comprise

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does comprise mean?

1. verbTo consist of or be made up of a number of parts or members.

Comprise in a sentence

• The report will comprise four sections and a summary.

• The four regions that comprise the new district each send a delegate.

Where does comprise come from?

Language of origin: French

Comprise reached English in the 1400s from Old French compris, the past participle of comprendre, meaning 'to contain' or 'to understand'. That French verb came straight from the Latin comprehendere, formed from com- 'together' and prehendere 'to grasp or seize', so the literal idea was of gathering several things together into one hold. The same Latin root gives us 'comprehend' and 'comprehensive', which is a useful memory hook: to comprise something is, in a sense, to grasp all its parts at once. Over time the legal and descriptive sense settled into 'to be made up of' or 'to consist of', as in a whole that takes in its parts. The spelling trap is the ending: it is -ise from the French past participle, never the -ize many writers expect, and it keeps that same s in every dialect.

How the word is built

• com- (together)
• -prise (from Latin prehendere: to grasp, seize)