composition

noun Etymology: Middle English composicioun, from Anglo-French composicion, from Latin composition-, compositio, from componere Date: 14th century 1. a. the act or process of composing; specifically arrangement into specific proportion or relation and especially into artistic form b. (1) the arrangement of type for printing <

hand composition

> (2) the production of type or typographic characters (as in photocomposition) arranged for printing 2. a. the manner in which something is composed b. general makeup <

the changing ethnic composition of the city — Leonard Buder

> c. the qualitative and quantitative makeup of a chemical compound 3. mutual settlement or agreement 4. a product of mixing or combining various elements or ingredients 5. an intellectual creation: as a. a piece of writing; especially a school exercise in the form of a brief essay b. a written piece of music especially of considerable size and complexity 6. the quality or state of being compound 7. the operation of forming a composite function; also composite function • compositional adjective • compositionally adverb