constituents

Noun

constituent (plural constituents)

1. A part, or component of a whole.
   • We know how to bring these constituents together, and to cause them to form water.1865, John Tyndall, The Constitution of the Universe, published 1869, page 11
2. A person or thing which constitutes, determines, or constructs.
   • whose first composure and origination requires a higher and nobler Constituent than either Chance or the ordinary method of meer Natural causes.a. 1677 (date written), Matthew Hale, The Primitive Origination of Mankind, Considered and Examined According to the Light of Nature, London: […] William Godbid, for William Shrowsbery, […]...
3. A resident of an area represented by an elected official, particularly in relation to that official.
   • The candidate himself, the son and heir of a peer, feels that he is truly of the same flesh and blood as his constituents; how amiably he smiles!—how bland are his manners!—and with what cordiality does he shake hands with the greasiest and the worst!1835, James Fenimore Cooper, The Monikins, volume 1, Philadelphia: Carey, Lea, & Blanchard, pages 75–76
4. A voter who supports a (political) candidate; a supporter of a cause.
   • But he [Joe Biden] believes that non-college-educated voters, the neglected constituents he wants to take back from the Republicans, hardly know about the big bills emanating from Washington with banal names.2023 January 19, Franklin Foer, “How Joe Biden Wins Again”, in The Atlantic
5. One who appoints another to act for him as attorney in fact.
6. A functional element of a phrase or clause.
   • Thus, the postulation of a Noun Phrase constituent is justified on morphological grounds, since it is not obvious how we could describe the grammar of the genitive s inflection in English without saying that it's a Noun Phrase inflection.1988, Andrew Radford, Transformational grammar: a first course, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 65

See all 9 meanings of constituent