COMPOSITION, the action of putting together and the product of such action (Lat. compositio, from componere, to put together). In philology, the putting together of two words to form a single word; in grammar, the combination of words into sentences, and sentences into periods ; the art of producing a work in prose or verse, or the work itself. In music "composition" is used both of the art of combining musical sounds in accordance with the rules of musical form, and of the whole art of creation or invention. In the other fine arts the word is used of the balanced arrangement of the parts of a picture, a piece of sculp ture or a building, so that they form one harmonious whole.
The word also means an adjustment of differences between two or more parties. A more particular use is the legal one, for an agreement by which a creditor agrees to take a sum less than his debt in satisfaction of the whole. (See BANKRUPTCY.) In logic (q.v.) "composition" is the name given to a fallacy of equivocation, where what is true distributively of each member of a class is inferred to be true of the whole class collectively. Composition, often shortened to "compo," is the name given to materials compounded of more than one substance, and is used in various trades and manufactures for a mixture, such as stucco, cement and plaster.