Comprised of vs. Composed of

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hello, this is Susanna from New York.

Welcome to the show. How can we help?

I am a content specialist with a large database company, and I often run into the issue of the comprised of, composed of, consist of, and comprises issue with people who believe it should be comprised of, and sometimes a big debate breaks out. So I’ve kind of been beaten into submission and using composed, comprised of. But I wanted to see if we could discuss that issue, composed of versus comprised of, and, you know, how to use that word appropriately.

So tell us about the comprised, comprised of debate there.

So a typical sentence or a typical phrase in our very sexy industry of technology would be something like they are building somewhat unwieldy multi-cloud environments comprised of SaaS or PaaS cloud offerings or mixes of public infrastructure as a service environment.

So I often try to use a pizza. I try to use the pizza example, which I try to say to them, okay, comprise means to include or consist of, like you would say, the pie comprises eight slices or eight slices compose the pie, you know, to try and make it simple for people to understand.

But it seems like most people just want to default to comprise of. But then when I insert the constitute or consists of, it often sounds funny. You know, it doesn’t fit in the sentence and it looks weird, but I’ve kind of just given up hope. So I just use comprised of.

But I want to be able to explain to them or even send them a podcast of the show to say, hey, I’m not the only one who says this is incorrect in this instance. You know, so, yeah, I was looking for guidance on how people keep it clear because it’s very confusing. You know, the difference between comprise or when to use comprising or comprises.

You ever use the comprise of or or should you just go with compose as an alternative, you know, is composed of, you know, as an example?

Yeah. Well, Susanna, you’ll be glad to know that technically you’re right. Just don’t say comprised of. Just don’t. That’s the traditional rule.

The problem is that people like you and me sound sort of prissy now when we insist that you shouldn’t say comprised of. I mean, if you go back to the origin of this word, it’s related to the word comprehend. It comes from Latin words that mean basically a wrap your arms around something. And your pizza example is a good one.

I like talking about the alphabet, too. The alphabet comprises 26 letters or it’s composed of 26 letters or it consists of 26 letters.

Yeah. But but technically, traditionally, sticklers are going to say don’t say comprised of. But OK. But what’s but then what do you do with that information in your workplace?

Right. Well, now I show them that an authoritative source has agreed with me and I play the podcast for everyone. And then everyone just falls into line.

Yeah.

An authoritative, prissy source. And I change the industry for the better.

Maybe. I just always try to reword it because I start to question myself.

Yeah. Because you said this yourself, Susanna. Just avoid comprise. Just avoid the word. Just get out of the argument altogether and stop using comprise.

Do you have an in-house style guide, by the way, for these kinds of things?

Yeah, I based it on the AP style guide, although some people, you know, whether it’s AP or Chicago style, that is basically what I use. Although with social media and everything, I’m kind of being forced away, you know, from the norms sometimes just because of spacing issues.

You know, if it’s a short blog post or social media, even spelling out acronyms. I mean, most of our product names are so long, you know, we’ve just resorted to using acronyms and things like that that we hope people in the industry just inherently know.

But, yeah, there’s a lot of grammatical norms that, of course, go out the window now as I move to a paradigm of digital and social media where everything has to be so short and the average reading time is like 25 seconds on a blog.

Right.

So it’s, yeah, it’s a constant battle since I’m, you know, I’m almost 50 now and I’m very well entrenched. I used to carry that AP style guide like a Bible.

Yeah. And now I have to kind of let it go sometimes.

You have to choose your battles, right?

That’s right.

Yeah.

Yeah.

For this one, I think you gave yourself the solution. If they insist on using comprise, just go with constitute or composed of or constituted of and just move on and just sideline that word from here on out.

Put it on a brass plaque and never use it again.

Right.

Yeah, and it is. It’s something you do see a lot in the tech world. At the Silicon Valley, a lot of the companies use it a lot. People reach for it because it feels a little fancy, and you’ll often find that in the writing of people who are trying to glitz up their so-so ideas.

Right. And so maybe use it as a signal that you need to pay more attention to their content, too.

Yeah, it’s just one of those words where somebody is going to have a problem with it.

Yeah, that’s true as well. Whether you get it right or wrong, somebody is going to have difficulty with it.

Yeah.

Well, yeah, I appreciate your help on this. And, yeah, I’ll stick with what you recommended then to try and make my life easier.

Yeah, yeah, that’s the goal.

Thanks for your call.

Take care now.

Bye, Susanna.

Okay, thank you.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

Bye.