decomposition

See also: décomposition

English

Etymology

Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *de
Proto-Indo-European *-h₁
Proto-Indo-European *déh₁
Proto-Italic *dē
Latin dē
Latin dē-der.
English de-
English composition
English decomposition

    From de- + composition.

    Pronunciation

    • (UK) IPA(key): /diːˌkɒmpəˈzɪʃən/
    • Audio (Southern England):(file)

    Noun

    decomposition (countable and uncountable, plural decompositions)

    1. A biological process through which organic material is reduced to e.g. compost.
      • 2026 July 27, Nicholas Muhoro, “The Disappearance of Kayla Berg and the Condemned House Where Her Trail Ended”, in Skip Boring‎[1], archived from the original on 28 July 2026:
        Before tearing up the property with machinery, the police conducted a screening at the site with specialised cadaver dogs. The dogs gave positive indications in specific areas of the property, indicating the scent of human decomposition.
    2. The act of taking something apart, e.g. for analysis.
      • 2005, Gerard Chollet, Anna Esposito, Marcos Faundez-Zanuy, Nonlinear Speech Modeling and Applications:
        Speech decomposition into a periodic and a non-periodic part is a subject of considerable importance with applications in speech synthesis, […]
    3. The splitting (of e.g. a matrix, an atom, or a compound) into constituent parts.

    Derived terms

    Translations

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