composition

 
Pronunciation: /kɒmpəˈzɪʃ(ə)n/

noun

  • 1 [mass noun] the nature of something’s ingredients or constituents; the way in which a whole or mixture is made up: the social composition of villages
  • the action of putting things together; formation or construction: the composition of a new government was announced in November
  • [count noun] a thing composed of various elements: a theory is a composition of interrelated facts
  • archaic mental constitution; character: persons who have a touch of madness in their composition
  • [often as modifier] a compound artificial substance or material: composition tiles
  • Mathematics the successive application of functions to a variable, the value of the first function being the argument of the second, and so on: composition of functions, when defined, is associative
  • Physics the process of finding the resultant of a number of forces: the composition of forces
  • 2a creative work, especially a poem or piece of music: Chopin’s most romantic compositions
  • [mass noun] the action or art of producing a creative work such as a poem or piece of music: the technical aspects of composition
  • an essay, especially one written by a school or college student: we had a class composition, ‘My Best Friend’
  • the artistic arrangement of the parts of a picture: none of the other photographs shared this particular composition
  • 3 [mass noun] the preparation of text for printing by setting up characters or by establishing its style and appearance electronically: an external contractor providing computerized composition and typesetting
  • 4a legal agreement to pay a sum in lieu of a larger debt or other obligation: he had been released by deed on making a composition with the creditors
  • a sum paid in lieu of a larger debt: Royalists redeemed their sequestrated estates by paying compositions

Derivatives

compositional

adjective

compositionally

adverb

Origin:

late Middle English: via Old French from Latin compositio(n-), from componere 'put together'