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If one googles the word encomprises, there are 5K+ pages, that have this word. I personally have heard people in the USA use it with a meaning of include.

Official dictionaries, on the other hand, only have the word comprise.

Is "encomprise" just a verb form of "comprise", making the use of "encomprises" a mistake?

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closed as not constructive by Daniel, MετάEd, Mahnax, Brendon, Barrie England Jan 21 '12 at 8:19


If enough people keep using it, encomprise might eventually become a "word", but IMHO as of now its primary status is evidence of illiteracy. –  FumbleFingers Jan 21 '12 at 2:23

2 Answers 2

up vote 5 down vote accepted
  1. I found 210 results on Google, most of which are either duplicates of each other or instances of the word in French.
  2. Ngrams (Google Books) has no instances.
  3. No online dictionary that I can find includes encomprise.
  4. I have never seen the word before.

Therefore, I strongly suspect that it is an eggcorn meaning encompass, but influenced by comprise. Encomprise is not an accepted word in modern English.

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You have googled "encomprise". I've got results that are meaningful when googled "encomprises". Most of the results are from a non-english sites, so I can assume this is what non-native speakers, like myself, would logically "make up" for comprise. Still I am positive people in Missouri have used it. Thank you for the answer by the way. –  Maxim V. Pavlov Jan 21 '12 at 0:42
Encomprise is not in Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913 + 1828 editions). machaut.uchicago.edu/… –  Wayfaring Stranger Jan 21 '12 at 1:03
A common form of this "verb" is encomprising which gets 130 actual results in Google Books, of which a high proportion seem to be by Indian or far Eastern authors. I'm not sure I'd say it's emerging Indian English as such - they're probably just more prone to the error. –  FumbleFingers Jan 21 '12 at 2:33

The OED disavows any knowledge of it. Google is not a dictionary.

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