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

• autodecomposition
• Białynicki-Birula decomposition
• branch-decomposition
• chemical decomposition
• Dantzig-Wolfe decomposition
• decompositional
• decomposition potential
• double decomposition
• eigen decomposition
• eigendecomposition
• Heegaard decomposition
• Hodge decomposition
• matrix decomposition
• nano-decomposition
• nanodecomposition
• nondecomposition
• open book decomposition
• photodecomposition
• predecomposition
• prime decomposition
• QR decomposition
• Schur decomposition
• singular value decomposition
• square root decomposition
• tree decomposition

Related terms

• decompose

Translations

biological process

• Bulgarian: гниене (bg) n (gniene), разлагане (bg) n (razlagane)
• Catalan: descomposició (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 分解作用 (fan¹ gaai² zok³ jung⁶)

  Mandarin: 分解作用 (zh) (fēnjiě zuòyòng)

• Danish: nedbrydning c, forrådnelse c, opløsning c
• Finnish: hajoaminen (fi)
• French: décomposition (fr) f
• Galician: descomposición (gl) f
• Georgian: ხრწნა (xrc̣na), გახრწნა (gaxrc̣na), ლპობა (lṗoba)
• German: Zersetzung (de) f, Abbau (de) m, Verwesung (de) f
• Greek: αποσύνθεση (el) f (aposýnthesi)
• Haitian Creole: dekonpozisyon
• Hindi: अपघटन m (apaghṭan)
• Indonesian: dekomposisi (id), penguraian (id)
• Italian: decomposizione (it) f
• Japanese: 分解 (ja) (bunkai)
• Malay: pereputan (ms)
• Marathi: विघटन n (vighṭan), अपघटन n (apaghṭan)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: nedbrytning m or f, nedbryting m or f

  Nynorsk: nedbryting f

• Polish: rozpad (pl) m, rozkład (pl) m, gnicie (pl) n
• Portuguese: decomposição (pt) f
• Romanian: descompunere (ro) f, decompoziție (ro) m
• Russian: разложе́ние (ru) n (razložénije), гние́ние (ru) n (gnijénije), распа́д (ru) m (raspád)
• Serbo-Croatian: raspad (sh) m
• Spanish: descomposición (es) f
• Swedish: nedbrytning (sv) c
• Tagalog: agnas (tl)
• Turkish: ayrışma (tr), çürüme (tr)

act of taking something apart

• Bulgarian: разглобяване (bg) n (razglobjavane)
• Danish: opløsning c
• Finnish: hajottaminen (fi), erittely (fi)
• French: démontage (fr) m
• German: Zerlegung (de) f
• Greek: διάλυση (el) f (diálysi)
• Hindi: विघटन (hi) m (vighṭan), विखंडन m (vikhaṇḍan)
• Indonesian: dekomposisi (id)
• Japanese: 分解 (ja) (bunkai)
• Malay: leraian
• Māori: wāwāhinga
• Portuguese: decomposição (pt) f
• Romanian: demontare (ro) f, descompunere (ro) f
• Russian: разложе́ние (ru) n (razložénije), расчлене́ние (ru) n (rasčlenénije), разбие́ние (ru) n (razbijénije)

splitting into constituent parts

• Bulgarian: разлагане (bg) n (razlagane)
• Danish: opløsning c
• Dutch: decompositie (nl) f
• Finnish: hajotelma
• French: décomposition (fr) f
• German: Zerlegung (de) f
• Greek: διάσπαση (el) f (diáspasi)
• Haitian Creole: dekonpozisyon
• Hindi: विघटन (hi) m (vighṭan), विखंडन m (vikhaṇḍan)
• Japanese: 分解 (ja) (bunkai)
• Portuguese: decomposição (pt) f
• Romanian: descompunere (ro) f, dezasamblare (ro) f
• Russian: разложе́ние (ru) n (razložénije), декомпози́ция (ru) f (dekompozícija)
• Spanish: descomposición (es) f