“The Bill of Rights comprises ten amendments.” Or should that be “is comprised of”?

This question comes from a young woman named Donna, a bright student in one of our classes of working adults. “What about this word comprise?” she asked.

She’d been using it all her life in sentences like “The Greek alphabet is comprised of twenty-four letters.” But she’d been “corrected” by someone who insisted that the word does not mean “made up of,” that it’s properly used only in the sense of “includes” or “consists of.”

According to her self-appointed editor, she should have said that the alphabet “comprises twenty-four letters.” And she should definitely not say anything “is comprised of,” ever.

So who’s right, and who’s wrong? As with lots of language questions, it depends.

For one thing, it depends on what Donna and her accuser are right or wrong about. If we’re talking about the definition of the word, both have some evidence on their side. The Webster’s New World Dictionary lists both definitions, adding that the way Donna used it is still regarded “by a few” as a “loose usage.”

Which leads to the other thing they may be right or wrong about—the insistence that one of the uses has to be correct, the other incorrect. That’s just not true. Thousands of smart, knowledgeable writers and speakers regularly use the word the way Donna does. They’ll keep using it that way, as well they should.

And of course those who see it differently are entitled to usecomprise the way they want to. But they aren't entitled to inflict their opinions on others.

Fortunately, the International Society of Nit-pickers is comprised of a relatively few people.