“The team is comprised of ten people.”
‘Comprise’ already means ‘consists of’ — adding ‘of’ is redundant.
Usage Entry 11 / 1605 60-second read Formal
Comprise vs. Compose
The whole comprises the parts. The parts compose the whole.
The comparisoni
“The team comprises ten people.”
Or: ‘Ten people compose the team.’ The whole comprises; the parts compose.
More examplesii
01
The album is comprised of twelve tracks.
The album comprises twelve tracks.
‘Is comprised of’ is the form editors flag. The whole COMPRISES its parts directly.
02
Twelve tracks comprise the album.
Twelve tracks compose the album.
Parts COMPOSE a whole. The arrow goes from small → big.
The ruleiii
¶
Whole COMPRISES. Parts COMPOSE.
Never ‘is comprised of.’ Use ‘comprises’ or ‘is composed of.’ One points from top down, the other bottom up.
Notesiv
Origin
‘Comprise’ comes from Latin *comprehendere* (to grasp together); ‘compose’ from *componere* (to put together). The whole grasps its parts — the parts are put together into a whole. The directions have been the same since the 1400s.
Register
The ‘is comprised of’ rule is strict in edited writing and loose in speech. It’s one of the tells editors look for.
Watch for
When in doubt, use ‘is composed of’ (parts-make-whole) or ‘consists of’ (whole-has-parts). Both are safe in any register.
Memory aidv
Remember it like this
ComPRIse — the PRIde of the whole, containing its members.
A bit of historyvi
Both words have been used in English since the 15th century with their current directional meanings. Is comprised of as a phrase appears in informal writing from the early 1800s but has been criticized in usage manuals from Fowler (1926) onward. Some recent dictionaries note that the disputed form has reached general acceptance in some contexts, but in edited writing the strict version (comprises or is composed of) remains the default of every major American and British style guide.
In the wildvii
Real-world-style usage — how this looks in a sentence people would actually write.
- The United States comprises fifty states. (Or: Fifty states compose the United States.)
- The Oxford English Dictionary, which consists of more than 600,000 entries, comprises twenty volumes in its second edition.
Spottedviii
Specimens from the editorial inbox — lines that did, in fact, get published.
“The board is comprised of seven directors.”
— A public-company S-1 filing, 2021 — the form most style guides flag
“The award is comprised of a plaque and a $10,000 prize.”
— A foundation press release, 2019
Test yourselfix
Which is preferred in careful writing?
Quick duel 4 questions · ~30 seconds
Which is right?