Break
Break verb - To cause to separate into pieces usually suddenly or forcibly.
Compose
Compose verb - To put (something) into proper and usually carefully worked out written form.
Common collocations
Both words in one sentence
-
It skips over line breaks, which can make it frustrating when trying to compose a list (at least until you learn that putting a space just before the line break fixes it without being visible.)
Source: Scunthorpe Problem -
Then you make — and break — an alliance with Nightcrawler & D'Compose, and then you run off and reawaken Sslither.
Source: Western Animation / Inhumanoids - Villains Out Shopping: I, Claudius has a scene where Tiberius takes a break from depravities and ordering executions to compose a verse-dialogue between the hare and the pheasant, in which they argue which one of them makes for a better meal.
Source: Literature / I, Claudius
Cite this Source
Compose and Break. (2016). Retrieved 2026, July 21, from https://thesaurus.plus/related/break/compose
Break & Compose. N.p., 2016. Web. 21 Jul. 2026. <https://thesaurus.plus/related/break/compose>.
Compose or Break. 2016. Accessed July 21, 2026. https://thesaurus.plus/related/break/compose.
Google Ngram Viewer shows how "break" and "compose" have occurred on timeline