Include

Part of speech: verb

Pronunciation: /ɪnˈkluːd/

Definitions

1. To contain or have as a part of a whole, or to make something part of a group or set
2. To have something as a constituent part or element within a whole ; to add someone or something into a group or collection as a member or element
3. To hold within as a component or ingredient of a larger whole ; to bring into a group or category by including as a part

Etymology: The verb "include" arrived in English from Latin "inclūdere," meaning "to shut in" or "to enclose," built from "in-" ("in") and "claudere" ("to shut"). The same Latin root gives us "close," "closet" and "clause," which makes "include" a close cousin of "enclose," the two forms being doublets that entered English by different routes. Its original sense was physical: to shut something inside a space, which is still visible in its sibling "enclose." English already had a word for this idea. Old English "belūcan" meant "to include" and also "to shut in," but Middle English borrowed the Latin verb, and it gradually displaced the native word until "belūcan" disappeared from the language. The shift from literal walls to abstract membership came about because the picture of one thing held inside another naturally extended to things counted as part of a larger whole, so a list could "include" an item in the same way a box could hold one.

Synonyms: incorporate, comprise, contain, encompass, consist of

Antonyms: exclude, omit, remove, leave out, disregard