decomposition

From de- + composition.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /diːˌkɒmpəˈzɪʃən/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

decomposition (countable and uncountable, plural decompositions)

1. A biological process through which organic material is reduced to e.g. compost.
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.

• decompose