composite

adjective com·pos·ite \ käm-ˈpä-zət , kəm-ˈpä- , especially British ˈkäm-pə-zit \

|Updated on: 10 Jun 2018

Definition of composite

1 : made up of distinct parts or elements

a composite photograph

composite materials

: such as

a capitalized : relating to or being a modification of the Corinthian order combining angular Ionic volutes with the acanthus-circled bell of the Corinthian

b : of or relating to a very large family (Compositae synonym Asteraceae) of dicotyledonous herbs, shrubs, and trees often considered to be the most highly evolved plants and characterized by florets arranged in dense heads that resemble single flowers

c : factorable into two or more prime factors other than 1 and itself

8 is a positive composite integer.

2 : combining the typical or essential characteristics of individuals making up a group

… the composite man called the Poet …
—Richard Poirier

… the knight was a composite portrait of men whom Chaucer personally knew.
—John Livingston Lowes

3 of a statistical hypothesis : specifying a range of values for one or more statistical parameters — compare simple 10

4 of a video signal : having two signal components (such as chrominance and luminance) combined in a single channel

For years, commercial television equipment has relied upon composite video cabling, which carries both brightness (luminance) and color (chroma) in a single cable. Problem is, before your television can produce a picture from this signal, it must be heavily filtered, resulting in serious degradation of image quality.
—Home Theater Buyer's Guide

— compare ²component 2

—

compositely

adverb

See composite defined for English-language learners

See composite defined for kids

Examples of composite in a Sentence

the movie's special effects included the use of many composite photographs

Recent Examples of composite from the Web

Police released a composite sketch of the suspected killer over the weekend.

— chris harris, PEOPLE.com, "Trail of Blood Leads Police to Spree Killer's Victims — Then He Shoots Himself as Cops Close In," 4 June 2018
Police had a composite sketch of the man who shot Pitt, but little to offer publicly as to the connection among the shootings.

— nathan j. fish, azcentral, "String of shootings leaves a trail of death, mystery across Scottsdale," 3 June 2018
The snowmobile is built from composite materials on a metal frame, lowering overall weight.

— kyle mizokami, Popular Mechanics, "Meet Russia’s Machine Gun-Toting Snowmobile," 8 May 2018
In April, police released composite sketches of the killer that Parabon created based on the the DNA evidence.

— robert gearty, Fox News, "DNA leads to arrest in Washington cold-case murder of young couple," 20 May 2018
New Journalism showed its flaws early on, as some writers took ethical leaps—changing location and time sequences, creating composite characters and using direct quotations based on memory.

— ellen gamerman, WSJ, "Tom Wolfe and the Legacy of New Journalism," 15 May 2018
The list was compiled from polling Michigan high school football coaches, Sound Mind Sound Body football camp coaches and composite rankings from 247Sports.com.

— perry a. farrell, Detroit Free Press, "Michigan's high school football recruiting Class of 2020 is full of talent," 12 May 2018
Wade's recruiting class is ranked fourth in the country by 247 Sports composite rankings and the Tigers trail only Duke, Kentucky and Oregon for the top class.

— andrew lopez, NOLA.com, "Date, opponent set for LSU basketball 2018-19 season opener," 2 May 2018
Quarterback Jack Miller has been on major college coaches' radar since the eighth grade and this spring was listed as the No. 1 quarterback in America in the 2020 class in the 247 Sports composite rankings.

— richard obert, azcentral, "Chaparral's new offense ready to take off under QB Jack Miller," 2 May 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'composite.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Origin and Etymology of composite

Latin compositus, past participle of componere — see compose

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: 1563

in the meaning defined at sense 1

See Words from the same year

composite Synonyms

Other Seed Plant Terms

aubergine, box, bramble, briar, perpetual, pulse, trefoil

composite

noun

Definition of composite

1 : something composite : compound

a composite of two images

2 : a composite (see ¹composite 1b) plant

daisys, dandelions, and other composites

3 : composite function

4 : a solid material which is composed of two or more substances having different physical characteristics and in which each substance retains its identity while contributing desirable properties to the whole; especially : a structural material made of plastic within which a fibrous material (such as silicon carbide) is embedded

See composite defined for English-language learners

Examples of composite in a Sentence

a composite of diverse communities
He spotted a man who resembled the police composite.

Recent Examples of composite from the Web

The awards will go to two projects aimed at speeding the development and licensing of a reactor fuel that features silicon carbide composite fuel cladding that contains uranium carbide fuel pellets.

— rob nikolewski, sandiegouniontribune.com, "General Atomics receives $3.2 million in federal funding for advanced nuclear energy work," 1 May 2018
The rocket company has already begun to move hardware into temporary facilities at the site, including a tooling that will be used to make carbon-fiber composites for the rocket's upper stage, also known as the Big Falcon Spaceship.

— eric berger, Ars Technica, "It’s official: SpaceX will build its monster rocket in California," 16 Apr. 2018
The Nasdaq composite, laden with technology stocks, sank 2.9 percent after a flurry of bad news about specific companies metastasized into a broad retreat from technology stocks.

— matt phillips, New York Times, "Technology Companies Drag Stock Markets Down Again," 27 Mar. 2018
The Nasdaq composite added 1.4 percent, to 6,874.49.

— joe mcdonald, The Seattle Times, "Asian markets mostly higher after Wall Street gains," 11 Feb. 2018
Eventually, with enough cat data and enough corrections on its edge-case mistakes, the AI will create that platonic cat composite and work through the unusual-cat problem on its own.

— nicholas thompson, WIRED, "AI Chatbots Try to Schedule Meetings—Without Enraging Us," 24 May 2018
Máximo is a composite of bones from several different creatures, with scientific interpolation being used to fill in the rest.

— steve johnson, chicagotribune.com, "Giant new Máximo is loaded into Field Museum, taking the place of Sue," 23 May 2018
The Nasdaq composite lost 28.13 points, or 0.4 percent, to 7,354.34.

— Washington Post, "US stock indexes cap choppy trading week with a mixed finish," 18 May 2018
Sage tweaked the composite of its already whippy Konnetic rod technology to transfer energy more efficiently, for faster casting.

— Outside Online, "The Best Fly-Fishing Rods of 2018," 15 May 2018

Origin and Etymology of composite

see ¹composite

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: 1656

in the meaning defined at sense 1

See Words from the same year

composite Synonyms

Synonyms

admixture, alloy, amalgam, amalgamation, blend, cocktail, combination, compound, conflation, emulsion, fusion, intermixture, meld, mix, mixture, synthesis;

Near Antonyms

component, constituent, element, ingredient;

Related Words

half-and-half;

absorption, blending, coalescence, coalition, commingling, commixture, homogenization, immingling, immixture, incorporation, integration, interfusion, intermingling, mergence, merger, merging, mingling;

assortment, hash, hodgepodge, hotchpotch, jumble, medley, mélange, mishmash, motley, patchwork, potpourri, variety;

accumulation, aggregation, conglomeration;

Other Seed Plant Terms

aubergine, box, bramble, briar, composite, perpetual, pulse, trefoil

composite

verb

Definition of composite

composited; compositing

transitive verb

: to make composite or into something composite

composited four soil samples

composite the images

Examples of composite in a Sentence

wood chips can be composited or sold as mulch

Recent Examples of composite from the Web

Smart marvels at the hype around Georgia’s most recent recruiting class, which snapped Alabama’s seven-year stranglehold on the top spot in the 247Sports composite ranking.

— andy staples, SI.com, "Kirby Smart Won't Let the Search for New Leaders Change Georgia's End Goal," 26 Mar. 2018
Facebook's issues have hurt the Nasdaq composite the most.

— adam shell, USA TODAY, "Stock market rattled by Facebook, other worries," 19 Mar. 2018
Georgia, currently No. 2 in the 247Sports composite behind Ohio State, has six with five-star ratings.

— michael casagrande, AL.com, "Why Alabama's run of 7 straight No. 1 recruiting classes is in serious trouble," 5 Feb. 2018
Miami’s recruiting class has a good chance to finish in the top 5 of the 247Sports composite ranking and perhaps no group is stronger than the Hurricanes running backs.

— david wilson diehards, ajc, "Miami recruiting: How Mark Walton’s injury could affect Hurricanes’ future at RB," 10 Oct. 2017
FILE PHOTO (EDITORS NOTE: COMPOSITE OF TWO IMAGES - Image numbers (L) 630131844 and 619019694) In this composite image a comparision has been made between Antonio Conte, Manager of Chelsea (L) and Arsene Wenger, Manager of Arsenal.

— SI.com, "Chelsea vs Arsenal Preview as Champions Prepare to Meet London Rivals in Beijing," 19 July 2017
In the same 247Sports composite ranking, Herbert was 39th.

— andrew greif, OregonLive.com, "Oregon QB Justin Herbert, with help from Mannings, says his confidence has improved most," 14 July 2017
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Ohio State defensive end commit Brenton Cox of Stockbridge, Ga., earned a fifth star in his 247Sports composite ranking on Tuesday, giving Urban Meyer two five-star defensive line pledges in his 2018 recruiting class.

— ari wasserman, cleveland.com, "Micah Parsons and more: Looking at Ohio State's top remaining defensive line targets," 31 May 2017

First Known Use of composite

1923

in the meaning defined above

See Words from the same year

NEW! Time Traveler

composite Synonyms

Synonyms

amalgamate, blend, combine, comingle, commingle, commix, concrete, conflate, fuse, homogenize, immix, incorporate, integrate, interfuse, intermingle, intermix, meld, merge, mingle, mix;

Antonyms

break down, break up, separate, unmix;

Near Antonyms

cleave, disjoin, disunite, divide, divorce, part, rupture, sever, sunder;

disperse, dissolve, scatter;

detach, disengage, split;

coalesce, compound, emulsify;

conjoin, join, knit, link, unite;

intertwine, interweave, weave;

Financial Definition of COMPOSITE

composite

adjective

What It Is

A composite is a grouping of securities, indexes or other items.

How It Works

One of the most well-known composites in the finance world is the Dow Jones Composite Average, which is a price-weighted average of the 65 companies that compose the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the Dow Jones Transportation Average, and the Dow Jones Utility Average. The index is price-weighted, meaning that the stocks with the highest prices have the most influence on the index.

Why It Matters

Composites are broad measures and usually a convenient way to evaluate the performance of a wide array of securities, other indexes or other items. For instance, the Dow Jones Composite Index gives a good indication of the overall direction of the largest companies in the United States: It includes some of the titans of the transportation, utility, financial services, technology, retail, entertainment and consumer goods industries. As such, the index is not just a measure of market performance; some consider it an economic indicator as well.

Source: Investing Answers