constituent

From Latin cōnstituēns, present participle of cōnstituō (“I establish”), from com- (“together”) + statuo (“I set, place, establish”); see statute or statue, and compare institute and restitute.

• IPA^(key): /kənˈstɪtjuənt/, /kənˈstɪt͡ʃuənt/

• Audio (UK):

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• Audio (US):

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constituent (not comparable)

1. Being a part or component of a whole.
   • 1695, C[harles] A[lphonse] du Fresnoy, translated by John Dryden, De Arte Graphica. The Art of Painting, […], London: […] J[ohn] Heptinstall for W. Rogers, […], →OCLC:

     Body, soul, and reason are the three parts necessarily constituent of a man.

2. Constitutive or constituting.
   1. (politics or law) Authorized to make a constitution.

      the Constituent Assembly

      • 1769, Junius, letter on 19 December, 1769, (part of Letters of Junius)

        A question of right arises between the constituent and representative body.

constituent (plural constituents)

1. A part, or component of a whole
   • 1865, John Tyndall, The Constitution of the Universe, published 1869, page 11:

     We know how to bring these constituents together, and to cause them to form water.

2. A person or thing which constitutes, determines, or constructs
   • a. 1677 (date written), Matthew Hale, The Primitive Origination of Mankind, Considered and Examined According to the Light of Nature, London: […] William Godbid, for William Shrowsbery, […], published 1677, →OCLC:

     whose first composure and origination requires a higher and nobler Constituent than either Chance or the ordinary method of meer Natural causes.

3. A resident of an area represented by an elected official, particularly in relation to that official.
   • 1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter XXV, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC:

     To appeal from the representatives to the constituents.

   • 2012 April 19, Josh Halliday, “Free speech haven or lawless cesspool – can the internet be civilised?”, in the Guardian‎^[1]:

     But the purported rise in violent videos online has led some MPs to campaign for courts to have more power to remove or block material on YouTube. The Labour MP Heidi Alexander said she was appalled after a constituent was robbed at knifepoint, and the attackers could be found brandishing weapons and rapping about gang violence online.

4. A voter who supports a (political) candidate; a supporter of a cause.
5. (law) One who appoints another to act for him as attorney in fact^[1]
6. (grammar) A functional element of a phrase or clause
   • 1988, Andrew Radford, Transformational grammar: a first course, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 65:

     Thus, the postulation of a Noun Phrase constituent is justified on morphological grounds, since it is not obvious how we could describe the grammar of the genitive s inflection in English without saying that it's a Noun Phrase inflection.

• substituent
• substitute

• Constituent (linguistics) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• “constituent”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “constituent”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

Borrowed from Latin cōnstituentem.

• IPA^(key): (Central) [kuns.ti.tuˈen]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic, Valencia) [kons.ti.tuˈent]

constituent m or f (masculine and feminine plural constituents)

1. constituent (being a part of a whole)

• constituir

• “constituent”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007

• IPA^(key): /kɔ̃s.ti.ty/

• Audio:

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constituent

1. third-person plural present/subjunctive of constituer

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [kõːˈstɪ.tu.ɛnt]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [konˈst̪iː.t̪u.en̪t̪]

cōnstituent

1. third-person plural future active indicative of cōnstituō

Borrowed from French constituant.

constituent n (plural constituenți)

1. constituent