• (GA) enPR: kəm-pōzʹ, IPA: /kəmˈpoʊz/
• (RP) enPR: kəm-pōzʹ, IPA: /kəmˈpəʊz/

compose (composes, present participle composing; past and past participle composed)

1. (transitive) To make something by merging parts. [from later 15th c.]

   The editor composed a historical journal from many individual letters.

   • Zeal ought to be composed of the highest degrees of all pious affection.

2. (transitive) To make up the whole; to constitute.

   A church is composed of its members.

   • A few useful things […] compose their intellectual possessions.

3. (transitive, nonstandard) To comprise.
4. (transitive or intransitive) To construct by mental labor; to think up; particularly, to produce or create a literary or musical work.

   The orator composed his speech over the week prior.

   Nine numbered symphonies, including the Fifth, were composed by Beethoven.

   It's difficult to compose without absolute silence.

   • 1714, Alexander Pope, Imitation of Horace, Book II. Sat. 6

     Let me […] compose / Something in Verse as true as Prose.

   • the genius that composed such works as the "Standard" and "Last Supper"

5. (sometimes, reflexive) To calm; to free from agitation.

   Try to compose your thoughts.

   The defendant couldn't compose herself and was found in contempt.

   • Compose thy mind; / Nor frauds are here contrived, nor force designed.

6. To arrange the elements of a photograph or other picture.
7. To settle (an argument, dispute etc.); to come to a settlement.
   • 2010, Christopher Hitchens, Hitch-22, Atlantic 2011, p. 280:

     By trying his best to compose matters with the mullahs, he had sincerely shown that he did not seek a violent collision […]

8. To arrange in proper form; to reduce to order; to put in proper state or condition.

   • In a peaceful grave my corpse compose.

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book 2”, in Paradise Lost. A Poem Written in Ten Books, London: Printed [by Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […] [a]nd by Robert Boulter […] [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], OCLC 228722708 ↗; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: The Text Exactly Reproduced from the First Edition of 1667: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554 ↗:

     How in safety best we may / Compose our present evils.

9. (printing, dated) To arrange (types) in a composing stick for printing; to typeset.

• (make up the whole) constitute, form; see also Thesaurus:compose

• French: composer
• German: zusammenstellen, zusammensetzen
• Portuguese: compor, montar
• Russian: составля́ть
• Spanish: componer

• French: composer
• Portuguese: compor, constituir
• Russian: составля́ть
• Spanish: constituir, conformar

• German: enthalten, umfasst, einschliessen
• Portuguese: compor (usage: compor-se de)
• Spanish: constar (de), componerse (de)

• French: composer
• German: abfassen, verfassen, komponieren
• Portuguese: compor
• Russian: сочиня́ть
• Spanish: componer

• German: sich fassen, sich beruhigen
• Portuguese: recompor-se
• Russian: собира́ться

• German: zusammenstellen, bilden
• Portuguese: compor