comprises

Comprises is a verb meaning “to be made up of; to consist of.” It is used to indicate that a whole includes the listed parts or components. In standard English, the subject of comprises is the whole, and the following items represent its components.

Usage notes: The preferred active construction in formal writing is “A comprises B and C” (or “A comprises B, C, and D”). The passive form “A is comprised of B and C” is common in everyday speech but is often discouraged by style guides; in many contexts, alternatives such as “A consists of B and C” or “A is made up of B and C” are clearer. Do not use “comprises of” after the verb comprises.

Origin and relation to similar terms: Comprise comes from Old French comprendre (to include), from Latin comprehendere (to seize together, to include). It is semantically related to phrases such as “consist of” and “be made up of,” which also express the idea of components making up a whole. The choice among these verbs depends on emphasis and register: “comprises” foregrounds inclusion within the whole, while “consists of” or “made up of” often read as a straightforward enumeration.

Examples: The committee comprises ten members. The anthology comprises works from five continents. The dataset comprises over a million records. The collection comprises three volumes and multiple appendices.

See also: contain, include, consist of, be made up of, compose.