different between form vs composition

English

Alternative forms

• forme (rare or archaic)

Etymology

From Middle English forme (“shape, figure, manner, bench, frame, seat, condition, agreement, etc.”), borrowed from Old French forme, from Latin f?rma (“shape, figure, image, outline, plan, mold, frame, case, etc., manner, sort, kind, etc.”)

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /f??m/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /f??m/
• Hyphenation: form
• Rhymes: -??(?)m

Noun

form (countable and uncountable, plural forms)

1. (heading, physical) To do with shape.
   1. The shape or visible structure of a thing or person.
      • 1699, William Temple, Heads designed for an essay on conversations

        Study gives strength to the mind; conversation, grace: the first apt to give stiffness, the other suppleness: one gives substance and form to the statue, the other polishes it.
   2. A thing that gives shape to other things as in a mold.
   3. Regularity, beauty, or elegance.
   4. (philosophy) The inherent nature of an object; that which the mind itself contributes as the condition of knowing; that in which the essence of a thing consists.
   5. Characteristics not involving atomic components. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
   6. (dated) A long bench with no back.
      • 1981, GB Edwards, The Book of Ebenezer Le Page, New York 2007, page 10:

        I can see the old schoolroom yet: the broken-down desks and the worn-out forms with knots in that got stuck into your backside […].

      • 2010, Stephen Fry, The Fry Chronicles: An Autobiography:

        The prefect grabbed me by the shoulders and steered me down a passageway, and down another and finally through a door that led into a long, low dining-room crowded with loudly breakfasting boys sitting on long, shiny oak forms, as benches used to be called.

   7. (fine arts) The boundary line of a material object. In painting, more generally, the human body.
   8. (crystallography) The combination of planes included under a general crystallographic symbol. It is not necessarily a closed solid.
2. (social) To do with structure or procedure.
   1. An order of doing things, as in religious ritual.
   2. Established method of expression or practice; fixed way of proceeding; conventional or stated scheme; formula.

      • Those whom form of laws / Condemned to die.

   3. Constitution; mode of construction, organization, etc.; system.

   4. Show without substance; empty, outside appearance; vain, trivial, or conventional ceremony; conventionality; formality.
   5. (archaic) A class or rank in society.

      • ladies of a high form

   6. (Britain) A criminal record; loosely, past history (in a given area).
      • 2011, Jane Martinson, The Guardian, 4 May:

        It's fair to say she has form on this: she has criticised David Cameron's proposal to create all-women shortlists for prospective MPs, tried to ban women wearing high heels at work as the resulting pain made them take time off work, and tried to reduce the point at which an abortion can take place from 24 to 21 weeks.

   7. Level of performance.

      The team's form has been poor this year.

      The orchestra was on top form this evening.

   8. (Britain, education) A class or year of school pupils (often preceded by an ordinal number to specify the year, as in sixth form).
      • 1928, George Bickerstaff, The mayor, and other folk

        One other day after afternoon school, Mr. Percival came behind me and put his hand on me. "Let me see, what's your name? Which form are you in? […]"

      • 1976, Ronald King, School and college: studies of post-sixteen education

        From the sixth form will come the scholars and the administrators.

3. A blank document or template to be filled in by the user.

4. A specimen document to be copied or imitated.
5. (grammar) A grouping of words which maintain grammatical context in different usages; the particular shape or structure of a word or part of speech.

6. The den or home of a hare.
   • , I.iii.1.2:

     The Egyptians therefore in their hieroglyphics expressed a melancholy man by a hare sitting in her form, as being a most timorous and solitary creature.

   • 1974, Lawrence Durrell, Monsieur, Faber & Faber 1992, p.275:

     Hares left their snug ‘forms’ in the cold grass.

7. (computing, programming) A window or dialogue box.
   • 1998, Gary Cornell, Visual Basic 6 from the ground up (p.426)

     While it is quite amazing how much one can do with Visual Basic with the code attached to a single form, to take full advantage of VB you'll need to start using multiple forms and having the code on all the forms in your project interact.

   • 2010, Neil Smyth, C# Essentials

     Throughout this chapter we will work with a form in a new project.

8. (taxonomy) An infraspecific rank.
9. (printing, dated) The type or other matter from which an impression is to be taken, arranged and secured in a chase.
10. (geometry) A quantic.
11. (sports, fitness) A specific way of performing a movement.

Synonyms

• (visible structure of a thing or person): shape; see also Thesaurus:shape
  • (visible structure of a person): figure; see also Thesaurus:physique
• (thing that gives shape to other things): cast, cookie cutter, mold, pattern
• (mode of construction): configuration, makeup; see also Thesaurus:composition
• (blank document): formular
• (pre-collegiate level): grade
• (biology): f.

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Verb

form (third-person singular simple present forms, present participle forming, simple past and past participle formed)

1. (transitive) To assume (a certain shape or visible structure).
2. (transitive) To give (a shape or visible structure) to a thing or person.

3. (intransitive) To take shape.
4. To put together or bring into being; assemble.

5. (transitive, linguistics) To create (a word) by inflection or derivation.

6. (transitive) To constitute, to compose, to make up.
   • 1796, Edmund Burke, Letters on a Regicide Peace

     the diplomatic politicians […] who formed by far the majority

   • 1948 May, Stanley Pashko, “The Biggest Family”, in Boys' Life, Volume 38, Number 5, Boy Scouts of America, ISSN 0006-8608, p.10:

     Insects form the biggest family group in nature's kingdom, and also the oldest.

7. To mould or model by instruction or discipline.
   • 1731–1735, Alexander Pope, Moral Essays

     'Tis education forms the common mind.

   • Thus formed for speed, he challenges the wind.

8. To provide (a hare) with a form.

   • The melancholy hare is formed in brakes and briers.
9. (electrical, historical, transitive) To treat (plates) to prepare them for introduction into a storage battery, causing one plate to be composed more or less of spongy lead, and the other of lead peroxide. This was formerly done by repeated slow alternations of the charging current, but later the plates or grids were coated or filled, one with a paste of red lead and the other with litharge, introduced into the cell, and formed by a direct charging current.

Synonyms

• (give shape): beshape, transmogrify; see also Thesaurus:form
• (take shape): take form, take shape; see also Thesaurus:come into being
• (constitute): compose, make up; see also Thesaurus:compose

Related terms

• format
• formation

Translations

Further reading

• form in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• form in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• MoRF, from

Danish

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin f?rma (“shape, form”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /f?rm/, [f???m]

Noun

form c (singular definite formen, plural indefinite former)

1. form
2. shape

Declension

Noun

form c (singular definite formen, plural indefinite forme)

1. mould
2. tin (a metal pan used for baking, roasting, etc.)

Declension

Further reading

• “form” in Den Danske Ordbog
• form on the Danish Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^da

German

Verb

form

1. singular imperative of formen
2. (colloquial) first-person singular present of formen

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology 1

From Old Norse form, from Latin forma (“form; figure, shape, appearance”), from f?rma (“form, figure, shape, appearance”) with an unknown descent, perhaps from some Etruscan *morma (*morma), connected by some with Ancient Greek ????? (morph?, “shape, form, appearance”), possibly of Pre-Greek origin.

Noun

form f or m (definite singular forma or formen, indefinite plural former, definite plural formene)

1. form
2. shape
3. a mould (e.g. for cast products)

Derived terms

Related terms

• forme

Etymology 2

Verb

form

1. imperative of forme

References

• “form” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin forma.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /f?rm/

Noun

form f (definite singular forma, indefinite plural former, definite plural formene)

1. form
2. shape
3. a mould (e.g. for cast products)

Derived terms

Related terms

• -forma
• forme

References

• “form” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Swedish

Etymology

From Old Swedish forma, borrowed from Latin forma.

Pronunciation

Noun

form c

1. a form, a shape
2. a form, a mold, a dish, a tray, a tin, a piece of ovenware

Declension

Related terms

shape

• cirkelform
• ellipsform
• forma

mold

• formfranska
• formgjuta
• gjutform
• kakform
• knäckform
• pajform

Anagrams

• fr.o.m., from

Turkish

Etymology

From French forme.

Noun

form (definite accusative formu, plural formlar)

1. form

Declension

English

Etymology

From Middle English composicioun, from Old French composicion, from Latin compositi?, compositi?nem.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?k?mp??z???n/

Noun

composition (countable and uncountable, plural compositions)

1. The act of putting together; assembly.
2. A mixture or compound; the result of composing. [from 16th c.]
3. The proportion of different parts to make a whole. [from 14th c.]
   • 1611, King James Version of the Bible, Exodus 30:37,^[1]

     And as for the perfume which thou shalt make, ye shall not make to yourselves according to the composition thereof: it shall be unto thee holy for the Lord.

4. The general makeup of a thing or person. [from 14th c.]
   • c. 1595, William Shakespeare, Richard II, Act II, Scene 1,^[2]

     John of Gaunt. O how that name befits my composition!

     Old Gaunt indeed, and gaunt in being old:

     Within me grief hath kept a tedious fast;

     And who abstains from meat that is not gaunt?

   • 1932, Frank Richards, The Magnet - Bunter's Night Out

     It seemed that the milk of human kindness had not been left out of his composition.

5. (obsolete) An agreement or treaty used to settle differences; later especially, an agreement to stop hostilities; a truce. [14th-19th c.]
   • 1604, William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure, Act 1, Scene 2, Lines 1-3

     If the Duke, with the other dukes, come not to composition with the king of Hungary, why then all the dukes fall upon the king.

   • c. 1605, William Shakespeare, Macbeth, Act I, Scene 2,^[3]

     That now

     Sweno, the Norways’ king, craves composition:

     Nor would we deign him burial of his men

     Till he disbursed at Saint Colme’s inch

     Ten thousand dollars to our general use.

   • 1630, John Smith, True travels, in Kupperman 1988, p.50:

     with an incredible courage they advanced to the push of the Pike with the defendants, that with the like courage repulsed […], that the Turks retired and fled into the Castle, from whence by a flag of truce they desired composition.

   • 1754, David Hume, The History of England, London: T. Cadell, 1773, Volume I, p. 8,^[4]

     […] the Britons, by rendering the war thus bloody, seemed determined to cut off all hopes of peace or composition with the enemy.

6. (obsolete) A payment of money in order to clear a liability or obligation; a settling or fine. [16th-19th c.]
   • c. 1602, William Shakespeare, All’s Well That Ends Well, Act IV, Scene 3,^[5]

     He hath perverted a young gentlewoman here in Florence, of a most chaste renown; and this night he fleshes his will in the spoil of her honour: he hath given her his monumental ring, and thinks himself made in the unchaste composition.

   • 1688, Parliament of England, Toleration Act 1688, section 3:

     That all and every person and persons already convicted or prosecuted in order to conviction of recusancy […] shall be thenceforth exempted and discharged from all the penalties, seizures, forfeitures, judgments, and executions, incurred by force of any of the aforesaid Statutes, without any composition, fee, or further charge whatsoever.

   • 1745, Edward Young, Night-Thoughts, II:

     Insidious death! should his strong hand arrest, / No composition sets the prisoner free.

7. (law) an agreement or compromise by which a creditor or group of creditors accepts partial payment from a debtor.
8. An essay. [from 16th c.]
9. (linguistics) The formation of compound words from separate words. [from 16th c.]
10. A work of music, literature or art. [from 17th c.]
    • 1818, Jane Austen, A letter dated 8 September 1818:

      […] and how good Mrs. West could have written such books and collected so many hard words, with all her family cares, is still more a matter of astonishment. Composition seems to me impossible with a head full of joints of mutton and doses of rhubarb.

11. (printing) Typesetting. [from 19th c.]
12. (mathematics) Applying a function to the result of another.
13. (physics) The compounding of two velocities or forces into a single equivalent velocity or force.
14. (obsolete) Consistency; accord; congruity.
    • c. 1604, William Shakespeare, Othello, Act I, Scene 3,^[6]

      There is no composition in these news

      That gives them credit.

15. Synthesis as opposed to analysis.

    • The investigation of difficult things by the method of analysis ought ever to precede the method of composition.

16. (painting, photography) The arrangement and flow of elements in a picture.
17. (object-oriented programming) Way to combine simple objects or data types into more complex ones.

Synonyms

• (general makeup of a thing or person): configuration, constitution; see also Thesaurus:composition
• (mixture or compound): blend, melange; see also Thesaurus:mixture
• (work of music, literature or art): See also Thesaurus:musical composition

Derived terms

• composition algebra
• composition book, composition notebook
• composition fee
• letter of composition

Related terms

• composite
• compositing
• compositionism
• compositionist

Translations

Anagrams

• monisotopic

French

Etymology

From Old French composicion, borrowed from Latin compositi?, compositi?nem.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k??.po.zi.sj??/

Noun

composition f (plural compositions)

1. composition, makeup
2. essay
3. composition, work of art
4. (linguistics) composition, formation of compound words
5. (printing) composition, typesetting
6. (sports) lineup
7. (object-oriented programming) composition

Synonyms

• (essay): essai, dissertation, rédaction
• (work of art): œuvre

Related terms

• composer
• compositeur

Descendants

• ? Turkish: kompozisyon

References

• “composition” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Middle French

Etymology

From Old French composicion.

Noun

composition f (plural compositions)

1. agreement; accord; pact

Descendants

• French: composition