component

[ kuhm-poh-nuhnt, kom- ]
See synonyms for component on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. a constituent part; element; ingredient.

  2. a part of a mechanical or electrical system: They checked the pads, rotors, and other components of my car's brake system.

  1. Physics. the projection of a vector quantity, as force or velocity, along an axis.

  2. Physical Chemistry. one of the set of the minimum number of chemical constituents by which every phase of a given system can be described.

  3. Mathematics.

    • a connected subset of a set, not contained in any other connected subset of the set.

    • a coordinate of a vector.

  4. Linguistics.

    • one of the major subdivisions of a generative grammar: base component;transformational component;semantic component;phonological component.: Compare level (def. 17).

    • a feature determined by componential analysis.

adjective
  1. being or serving as an element (in something larger); composing; constituent: the component parts of a computer system.

Origin of component

1
First recorded in 1555–65; from Latin compōnent- (stem of compōnēns, present participle of compōnere “to put together”), equivalent to com- com- + pōn(ere) “to put” + -ent- -ent

synonym study For component

1. See element.

Other words from component

  • com·po·nen·tial [kom-puh-nen-shuhl], /ˌkɒm pəˈnɛn ʃəl/, com·po·nen·tal, adjective
  • com·po·nent·ed, adjective
  • sub·com·po·nent, noun

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

British Dictionary definitions for component

component

/ (kəmˈpəʊnənt) /


noun
  1. a constituent part or aspect of something more complex: a component of a car

  2. Also called: element any electrical device, such as a resistor, that has distinct electrical characteristics and that may be connected to other electrical devices to form a circuit

  1. maths

    • one of a set of two or more vectors whose resultant is a given vector

    • the projection of this given vector onto a specified line

  2. one of the minimum number of chemically distinct constituents necessary to describe fully the composition of each phase in a system: See phase rule

adjective
  1. forming or functioning as a part or aspect; constituent

Origin of component

1
C17: from Latin compōnere to put together, from pōnere to place, put

Derived forms of component

  • componential (ˌkɒmpəˈnɛnʃəl), adjective

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012