zusammengesetzt

Zusammengesetzt is a German adjective and past participle meaning “made up from parts” or “composed.” It describes things that result from combining two or more components, whether physical objects, concepts, or linguistic units. The term is used across different fields to signal that something is not simple or singular, but formed from elements.

Etymology and usage. The word is formed from zusammen (together) and gesetzt (placed, put). In everyday language it frequently appears with reference to objects or processes that consist of multiple parts. In linguistics, zusammengesetzt is used to describe compound words, or zusammengesetzte Wörter, which are created by joining two or more stems, such as Luftballon (air balloon) or Wasserflasche (water bottle).

In mathematics, zusammengesetzt is the standard term for what English speakers call a composite number. A number greater than 1 is zusammengesetzt if it has nontrivial divisors, i.e., it can be written as a product of two integers greater than 1. Examples include 4 = 2 × 2, 6 = 2 × 3, and 15 = 3 × 5. By contrast, prime numbers have no such factorization (they have exactly two distinct positive divisors: 1 and the number itself).

See also. The concept relates to compound words (linguistics), composite numbers (number theory), and the broader idea of aggregation or integration of parts in various disciplines.