Examples of Incorrect and Correct Usage of the Word "Comprise"

Incorrect: The neighbourhood is comprised of many families with young

children.
Correct: The neighbourhood comprises many families with young children

Incorrect: Some houses are comprised of brick, others of stone.

Correct: Some houses comprise brick, others stone.

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Incorrect: My siblings are comprised of three boys and two girls.

Correct: My siblings comprise three boys and two girls.

Incorrect: Twenty-three people comprise the Volunteer Committee.

Correct: Twenty-three people constitute the Volunteer Committee.
Correct: The Volunteer Committee comprises twenty-three people

Read more at Suite101: How to Use the Word "Comprise": Examples and Logic
Behind Saying "Comprised" http://www.suite101.com/content/how-to-use-the-wordcomprise-a95355#ixzz1CdENrQ5J

Comprise means "is made up of" or "consists of." It comes from the Latin comprensus (to
include; comprehend) The whole comprises the parts.
Compose means "to put together" or "make." This one comes from the Latin componere (to
put together). The parts compose the whole.
The place looks as if it's comprised of a body and four legs - WRONG
The place looks as if it's composed of a body and four legs - RIGHT
The place looks as if it comprises a body and four legs. - Also RIGHT
It looks as if a body and four legs compose the place. - And this is OK, too.

COMPRISE / COMPOSE

Comprise means 'to consist of' (e.g., The cake

comprises four slices.). Some quirks:

(1) No 'of' with comprise (e.g., It comprises of... ).
(2) Avoid the construction 'is comprised of'.
(3) Avoid naming the constituent parts first (e.g.,
Four slices comprise the cake.)
Compose means 'to make up' (e.g., Four slices
compose the cake.)
There is often confusion over 'comprise' and 'compose'. The situation is not
helped by ongoing debate about how to use comprise. If you stick to the
guidelines below, you will be on safe ground.

Comprise
To comprise means 'to consist of' or 'to be made up of'. It is used to denote that
something 'is made up of' smaller parts. Do not use the word 'of' with comprise.
Examples:
The water molecule comprises two atoms of hydrogen and one atom of
oxygen.
(The whole comprises the smaller parts.)
The water molecule comprises of two atoms of hydrogen and one atom of
oxygen.
(Do not use the word of with comprise.)
Two atoms of hydrogen and one atom of oxygen comprise the water molecule.
(This is one of the areas under debate. Many advocate that 'comprise' cannot be
used to denote that the smaller parts make up the whole. They believe this is
when 'compose' should be used. If you adhere to this ruling too, you will never be
wrong.)
The three wise monkeys comprise Mizaru (see no evil), Kikazaru (hear no evil)
and Iwazaru (speak no evil).
The quadriceps femoris comprise the
rectus femoris, the vastus medialis, the
vastus intermedius and the vastus
lateralis.

Is Comprised Of
The construction 'is comprised of' (note: it correctly includes the word 'of') is
considered by many to be non-standard English. To avoid criticism, reword your

sentence to avoid this construction.

Examples:
The water molecule is comprised of two atoms of hydrogen and one atom of
oxygen.
(Contentious version. Some of your readers may frown at this version.)
The water molecule comprises two atoms of hydrogen and one atom of
oxygen.
(Reworded, non-contentious version)

Compose
'To compose' means 'to make up' or 'to make'. It is used to denote that parts make
up the whole (i.e., the opposite of comprise). Do not use the word 'of' with
compose.
Examples:
Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars compose the inner planets.
The rectus femoris, the vastus medialis, the vastus intermedius and the vastus
lateralis compose the quadriceps femoris.
Two atoms of hydrogen and one atom of oxygen compose the water molecule.

Is Composed Of
The construction 'is composed of' (note: it correctly includes the word 'of') does
not attract the same criticism as 'is comprised of'.
Examples:
USA is composed of 50 states.
The water molecule is composed of two atoms of hydrogen and one atom of
oxygen.

Select the correct version:

A netball team comprises / is comprised of seven

players. Goal shooter, goal attack, wing attack, centre,
wing defence, goal defence and goal keeper comprise /
compose the team. The team comprises / includes two
players (goal shooter and goal attack) who are allowed
in the goal circle.

Consist means what it is made up of so...

In my class at school there are 43 pupils which consist of 20 boys and 23 girls.

Read more:
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_could_you_put_consist_in_a_sentence#ixzz1CdHYf
FcD

What's the subtle difference in meaning among

"consist", "make up", "compose", constituted" and
"comprise"?
1. Air consists mainly of nitrogen and oxygen.
2. Air is made up mainly of nitrogen and oxygen.
3. Air is composed mainly of nitrogen and oxygen.
4. Air is constituted mainly of nitrogen and oxygen.
5. Air is comprised mainly of nitrogen and oxygen.
6. A team consists of 5 players.
7. A team is made up of 5 players.
8. A team is composed of 5 players.
9. A team is constituted of 5 players.
10. A team is comprised of 5 players.
1 year ago
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Best Answer - Chosen by Asker

Air statements:
Made up - informal
consists - more formal
composed - more formal
comprised - more formal
constituted - most formal

Team:
consists: A part, or parts of the type in constituted. Can't think of a better way to
describe them other than: Made up of
Made up - Informal, describes ~most of all five. Use anytime, sometimes at own risk.
composed: made up of parts intermingled
constituted - Very intermingled. Not parts anymore but simply what it consists of.
comprised - made up of; almost: built of; in between composed and constituted
I suck at this. You really should ask this in the language section, wherever that is.
Philosophy is more about meanings and less about words.
The proper way for the air statement:
Air consists mainly of nitrogen and oxygen.
Teams:
A team is made up of five players.
But of course, it depends on the situation and the dialect. I'm writing this from a
Canadian perspective. Slight changes in dialect, situation, perspective you talk from
affects which one would be used. Basically use whatever you want. It's more like right
ways of saying it so that it flows better instead of there being a right way, with some
exceptions (I'm ignoring the exceptions here, don't worry about them. Most people
never notice they exist.):
Air:
All but the made up one and constituted one are in context.
Teams:
Made up and consists are the best, composed works but the other two and you sound
like a formal freak :D

Boring rant, prob both for the writer and the reader, con't:
You wouldn't say A team is composed of five players. That's like saying I took a
spoon and mixed five players together-voila a team. No that's more like a cake. The
cake is composed of eggs, butter, milk and a few other ingredients.
A team is constituted of five players-I didn't take the five players and carefully craft
them together. It is just plain way to formal. So formal, that if you used it to describe a
TEAM you would look not only weird, but kinda well-worse than weird. Like "ohmy-god that guy is sooo weird". It's
way out of context. Constituted isn't used much actually; it implies too much. It's
probably the second most evasive one to describe, right after made up.

Now a team is comprised of five players. Ok, maybe. Formal thing still going too
strong. But really imagine this scene: It's a soccer game. Fifty thousand people, all
cheering fans. By the way the root of fan is fanatic. So, people gone insane with
excitement cheering for the home team cause it just won and the announcer yells into
the microphone "...and the home team held the win while only being comprised of
five players cause of the penalty!" Whole crowd quiets down. Shock enters the
stadium. People gradually begin to cheer, but hearing nothing but their own echoes
slowly the entire stadium of fifty thousand people becomes so quiets that they can
here the janitors talking by the entrance. No one uses that word to describe teams
while they are playing. Now imagine what would happen with the word constituted.
Although this is exaggerated :D
A team is made of up five players passes with flying colours although what the
announcer might have actually said in the stadium is this: "Four versus five and the
home team wins!" - So you cut the crap, and get strait to the point. No formal "The
home team, made up of 4 players at the end of the game because of loosing the fifth
player to a penalty, kept their lead at the end of the game despite their opposition; the
other team's better ability to oppose them since the visiting team had 5 players." Okay.
Now that would stun the crowd.
Point is that you use made up of almost every time with team when it is appropriate to
use this group of words. Consists if your talking formally. Any more formal andstadium goes silent.
Now moving on to air.
Air consists mainly of nitrogen and oxygen. Right on. It consists. It's fluid. It flows.
It's a homogeneous mixture even. That word is like heaven for describing the air if
you ignore pollen, flying dirt, etc, etc. Consistency; stays the same. Consists, made up
of. Swap it to this: "Air mainly consists of nitrogen and oxygen." and your in textbook heaven. Other way and...let's hope that the editor isn't a perfectionist...hehe...
Air is made up of mainly of nitrogen and oxygen. Ok, so if you come home and say
that, speak it whatever in most cases your more than just fine. But start writing, and it
can be too informal. Use too much of this informal kind of language in a text book
and: "Hey Jake, y'know how you wrote chapter four last week" - "Ya?" - "I want you
to rewrite it. It stinks." - "Sorry boss, but I have no idea what you are talking about.
What did I do anyway?" - "Okay, it looked bad enough. But now I'm starting to
wonder if you actually think you can get away with describing scientific concepts in
eight year old language. We're talking about highschool students here." "Woops...hehe...you know what, maybe I'll have a look over Chapter four myself. I
forgot to tell you, it was really a work in progress" - "I really hope that was a work in
progress. On the other hand, that means that the textbook is going to be done late-I
don't want to have to fire you Jake" - "Don't worry boss, I'll make up for the lost
time."
Air is composed mainly of nitrogen and oxygen. This is that one I would probably
write but it isn't necessarily the best. Air is like cake. Mixed with the wind. Although,

if you wanted to mix cake with the wind you would need luck on your side or a lot of
specialized inventions and technology, unless you do it indirectly. Basically,
intertwined parts-but not the picture most people get with intertwined parts. Wait no.
THE picture a lot of people would get. Like a busted piece of machinery is composed
of many intertwined parts. Pretty much perfect description, if you ask me unless the
machinery fell apart instead of breaking down or crunching together. Basically, air is
like cake and machinery enguistically (ie: linguistically, but English related.) only
here and a few other random places. To people dumb enough to think others might be
dumb enough to think that air is like cake: your the one who is insane. C'mon, I'm on
the defensive. Seize the opportunity to batter my ego now that it's moved to another
town before you've even started even though you'd probably never start.
Ok, back to the point.
Air is constituted...NOT writing...
Ya that's why I'm trying to make up context actually. Like those sentences all mean
the same thing, until you put them in context. Taking things out of context to accuse
people of stuff or to make an idea seem real is called quote mining since it changes
the meaning.
Take this to the language section where they will use their lingo to describe how bla
with bla means bla but bla with bla means the other bla so the first bla and the second
bla are different. The more trivial something is, the longer it takes me to describe it
generally :D
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Other Answers (2)

by Ardi Pithecus

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In spite of HAHAHA's great effort to answer you coherently, what makes you
think that there is a difference? Each sentence means the same thing as the one
before it. Concepts are contextual, which means if there is a subtle difference,
it is to be found somewhere else in the text, perhaps where the author explains
his use of one word over another.
Two different authors can use two different words to mean identically the
same thing, but one author alone will probably use the same word, or maybe
only two words, to mean one thing.
When a philosopher makes a big deal over the meaning of one word over the
use of another, he will tell you what that big deal is and why. So you have to
have the context. You offer no context.
Aristotle said "that which is" where Ayn Rand said "a given existent". They
both meant
1.

consist of something to be made of particular parts or things

Breakfast consisted of dry bread and a cup of tea.

This years team, coached by Jeff Jackson, consisted entirely of college players.
consist of doing something:
My role seemed to consist of standing and smiling at people.

Thesaurus entry for this meaning of consist of

Consist. Comprise. Constitute. Compose. All four words are verbs, with slightly
different meanings. When defining each word, many dictionaries use one of the other
words in its definition, making it even more confusing. When choosing when to use
which, consider the following.

Consist
To consist of something is to be made up of it: A lethal dose of nerve agent VX
consists of only 10 milligrams.

Comprise
To comprise something has the same meaning as to consist, often implying that the

whole is regarded from the point of view of its individual parts: The chain is
comprised of many links, and is only as strong as its weakest.

Constitute
To constitute something is to form a whole, especially of dissimilar components: Love
and hate can constitute a balanced relationship.

Compose
To compose means the same as to constitute, but implies that the components have
something in common: Water is composed of hydrogen and oxygen.
Hate on comprise.
An interesting history of sense development concerning the word comprise has caused
confusion, if not hate for the word itself. The most common mistake is confusing
consist and comprise with each other. To say A lethal dose of nerve agent VX
comprises of only 10 milligrams, is wrong because it is not analyzed from each
separate component or milligram, but rather as a whole dose. In fact, there is a lot of
skepticism and criticism of the word "comprise" all together. "None of the many neat
schemes purporting to describe its correct use seems accurately to describe the way
Standard English users actually employ comprise." (Bartleby) Thus it is suggested to
use constitute and/or compose as active verbs, while consists and/or includes as
passive. However, if your use of the word can clearly indicate its context, separate
from the its other accepted use, choosing a substitute is not necessary.
Also, "Comprises" is better grammar than "is comprised of." "The whole comprises
multiple parts" is better than, "The whole is comprised of multiple parts." Even better
though is, "Multiple parts comprise the whole."
However... Usage

determines meaning.

Sources:
http://www.tiscali.co.uk/reference/dictionaries/english/data/d0081813.html
http://www.bartleby.com/68/3/1403.html
This form as a guide, not as a source: http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?
s=2248451b8ad7f34f6a3e881962f5af91&t=47429

I like it!

printable version
chaos

3 C!s

English verbs that relate

wholes and parts

The difference between a

road and a street

lay vs. lie

Comprise

Usage determines meaning

intransitive verb

Constitute

Consist

context

compose

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