Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use compose in a sentence

40 example sentences · verb

Compose means to make something by merging parts. Example: “The editor composed a historical journal from many individual letters.”

Examples of compose by meaning

verbTo make something by merging parts.

  • The editor composed a historical journal from many individual letters.

verbTo make up the whole; to constitute.

  • A church is composed of its members.

verbTo 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.

verbTo calm; to free from agitation.

  • Try to compose your thoughts.
  • The defendant couldn't compose herself and was found in contempt.

More sentences with compose

  • The cardinalate under a maximum age composes the conclave which elects the pope.From the entry cardinalate
  • Deposits of aqueoglacial sediments compose a significant portion of the landscape.From the entry aqueoglacial
  • These ‘three principles of connexion’ compose the framework of principles in Hume's account of the association of ideas.From the entry framework
  • To compose a country committed to all cultures, colors, characters and conditions of man.2021 January 20, Amanda Gorman, The Hill We Climb. From the entry man
  • Therefore we have developed the necessary software to compose pages using a low-cost personal computer.2012, P. L. Emiliani, Development of Electronic Aids for the Visually Impaired, page 59. From the entry typhlophile
  • You will not be forgotten," he said, and stopped to compose himself.2010 January 14, Helene Cooper, “Obama pledges aid to Haiti”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN…. From the entry forsake
  • Just remember to turn off Twitterese when you send an email to someone or compose a letter.2010, Jan Zimmerman, Doug Sahlin, Social Media Marketing All-in-One For Dummies®, Wiley, →ISBN. From the entry Twitterese
  • These chiefs, or headmen, likewise compose the assemblies of the nation, into which the warwomen are admitted.2007, Henry Timberlake, The Memoirs of Lt. Henry Timberlake, Museum of the Cherokee Indian Press, →ISBN, page 36. From the entry warwoman
  • The definition of tiatrists — the one who writes, directs, composes songs, sings and produces.2002, Mario Cabral e Sá, Redefining horizons: Goa, four decades of freedom, page 116. From the entry tiatr
  • For each X point, four borons in the same plane composing a B₆ cluster provide these orbitals.2001 August 10, J. Akimitsu, K. Takenawa, K. Suzuki, H. Harima, Y. Kuramoto, “High-Temperature Ferromagnetism in CaB₂C₂”, in Science…. From the entry boron
  • I do compose electronic music (more toward ambient or trance) here in East Virginia.2000 February 2, Michael Erwin <merwin@ipass.net>, “Electronic Music in West Virginia?”, in alt.west-virginia (Usenet), retrieved 20 May…. From the entry East Virginia
  • I sat down today and began to compose my first proper smutfic.1999 February 25, Feyd Ruatha [username], “I tried to smut, I really, really did”, in alt.tv.x-files.creative.mature (Usenet). From the entry smutfic
  • When composing a one shot, the subject should usually be centered in the frame.1998, Jerry Martin, Active Video: A Teaching Tool for Every Classroom, →ISBN, page 19. From the entry one shot
  • Composing any arrow with an identity arrow (supposing that the two are composable) gives the original arrow.1992, Colin McLarty, “Rudimentary Structures in a Category”, in Elementary Categories, Elementary Toposes (Oxford Logic Guides; 21)…. From the entry axiom
  • The index of attributes given below makes it quite easy both to compose and interpret florigraphic “documents.”1988, “The Language and Meanings of Flowers”, in The Complete Book of Fortune, Blaketon Hall Limited, →ISBN, page 571. From the entry florigraphic
  • Chairman Mao asked me to compose a song to record the splendor of this grand occasion.1972, Willis Barnstone, transl., The Poems of Mao Tse-tung, Bantam Books, →OCLC, page 143. From the entry Yen-Pien
  • He composes for anything from a ranchy guitar, played by a rock-and-roller, to a full symphony.1958, National Music Council (U.S.), Bulletin (volumes 19-21, page 19). From the entry ranchy
  • Munition makers who profit from wars compose an evil superpersonal force.1944, Vernon Parker Bodein, The social gospel of Walter Rauschenbusch and its relation to religious education. From the entry superpersonal
  • The annals of savagery and superstition unhappily compose a large part of human literature.1918, James George Frazer, Folk-Lore In The Old Testament, volume 1, page xi. From the entry unhappily
  • I was composing one day and somehow I had inadvertently selected a large chunk of text and deleted it.2023 April 29, Sue Bruns, “Why didn’t anyone ever tell me that?”, in Pioneer Weekender, 127th year, number 13, Bemidji, Minn., →ISSN…. From the entry word-process
  • I like composing acrostics while calculating the number of oxpeckers cleaning ticks from buffalo, giraffes and fellow rhinos.2021, Graham Fulbright, Snowcub, Kibworth Beauchamp, Leics.: Matador, →ISBN, pages 219–220. From the entry bicorn
  • The comprehensive techniques that composes manga is immature.2020, Kurobokuya, Kurobokuya manga lesson 4. From the entry manga mark
  • Legend has it that Hemingway won a barbet by composing the first Twitfic on an Algonquin bar napkin: “Classified: Baby Goods.2013 November 14, David Comfort, An Insider's Guide to Publishing, Penguin, →ISBN. From the entry twitfic
  • Curwen gazed at the 'clever, fussy, pretentious Victorian typefaces spread about his composing room floor' and felt a wave of revulsion.2012, Andrew Martin, Underground Overground: A passenger's history of the Tube, Profile Books, →ISBN, page 161. From the entry war effort
  • When, for example, Walter Scott's copy was received, compositors began to upmake lines of type in the caseroom or composing room.2011, Alistair Moffat, The Borders: A History of the Borders from Ealiest Times. From the entry upmake
  • Using a trait-like mechanism to compose large collections of mutually-dependent classes or traits could lead to parameter explosion.2006, Nathaniel J. Nystrom, Programming languages for scalable software extension and composition. From the entry trait
  • Then the robomoderator could compose the subject line, not only with the min-info, but in a standard format as well.1994 August 1, Brad Appleton, “RFD: misc.jobs reorganiza”, in news.groups (Usenet), archived from the original on 08 Dec 2025. From the entry robomoderator
  • To judge from the way women actually voted, they do not compose a voting bloc with especially compassionate clout.1982 December 10, Ann Hulbert, “What Gender Gap?”, in The New York Times, →ISSN. From the entry gender gap
  • He worked for a time at Saratov organizing revolutionary groups and anti-Tsarist propaganda and composing Bakuninist manifestos and appeals.1978 [1976], Leszek Kołakowski, translated by P[aul] S[teven] Falla, Main Currents of Marxism, volume II: The Golden Age, Oxford…. From the entry Bakuninist
  • Details are tremendously important in composing an outstanding high-key photograph.1942 November, Victor Keppler, “Key to Good Pictures”, in Popular Photography, →ISSN, page 29. From the entry high-key
  • Goldfaden continued to compose and compile dramas and musical plays.1929, Abraham Zevi Idelsohn, Jewish Music: Its Historical Development, page 454. From the entry accredit
  • Behind each seemingly off-the-cuff post (“DUDE LMAO THIS IS A GAS STATION😭😭😭”) were careful choices about how to compose the shot for maximum virality.2026 July 1, Will Oremus, “So Long to America’s Favorite Everymensch”, in Jeffrey Goldberg, editor, The Atlantic, Washington, D.C.: The…. From the entry virality
  • He then explained folkism as the use of history, culture, concerns, and aspirations of Nigerian people to compose and perform deploying African confentions.2024, Samuel Ravengai, Decolonising African Theatre, page 1989. From the entry folkism

Meaning of compose

  1. verb To make something by merging parts.
  2. verb To make up the whole; to constitute.
  3. verb To comprise.

Full definition of compose

Questions about compose in a sentence

How do you use compose in a sentence?
Compose is used as a verb. For example: “The editor composed a historical journal from many individual letters.”
What is a short sentence with compose?
“Try to compose your thoughts.”
What does compose mean?
Compose means to make something by merging parts.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: compose (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use compose in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/compose. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.