constituent

What it means

1. not comparableBeing a part or component of a whole.

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

   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

2. not comparableConstitutive or constituting.

   The skeleton varies in the proportions, and even to a certain extent in the connexions, of its constituent bones.

   1863, Thomas Henry Huxley, Evidence as to Man’s Place in Nature, London: Williams and Norgate, page 143

   1 more example

   In the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, three of the Soviet Union's fifteen constituent republics, last year's most dangerous fantasies have been sanctioned by the government itself.

   1989 May, Priit J. Vesilind, “The Baltic: Arena of Power”, in National Geographic, volume 175, number 5, page 604

   1. not comparablegovernmentAuthorized to make a constitution.

      the Constituent Assembly

      1 more example

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

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

In a sentence

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

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

Where it comes from

1. Latincōnstituēns
2. Englishconstituent

From Latin cōnstituēns, present participle of cōnstituō (“to establish”), from com- (“together”) + statuō (“to set, place, establish”).