Longman

Oxford

if one thing includes another, the second thing is part of the first:

Does the price include postage?

His job includes looking after under-21 teams.

The curriculum includes courses in computing.

if one thing includes another, it has the second thing as one of its parts

The tour included a visit to the Science Museum.

Does the price include tax?

Your duties include typing letters and answering the telephone.

include

If one thing includes another, it has that thing as one of its parts.

He is a former president of the Campania region, which includes Naples.

Their navy includes a large number of destroyers.

WARNING

You do not use include when mentioning all the parts of something. Instead, you use a word such as comprise.

(c) HarperCollins Publishers.

American Heritage Guide to Contemporary Usage and Style

Webster’s Dictionary of English Usage

The word include generally suggests that what follows is a partial list, not an exhaustive list, of the contents of what the subject refers to. Therefore a sentence like New England includes Connecticut and Rhode Island is acceptable, since it implies that there are states that are also a part of New England but are not mentioned in the list, and in fact this is correct. When a full enumeration is given, a different construction, such as one using comprise or consist of, must be used: New England comprises/consists of [not includes] Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine.

There are cases, however, in which include does not rule out the possibility of a complete listing. One such case is when the exact makeup of the subject is unknown or yet to be determined. Thus the sentence The bibliography should include all the journal articles you have used does not entail that the bibliography must contain something other than journal articles, though it does leave that possibility open. Another case in which the list following include may be exhaustive is when the list explicitly or implicitly describes what is not included: We decided to include only those artists who had written works within the last five years is acceptable, since the set of artists not included is implicitly defined as those who have not written works within the last five years. The same goes for cases of explicit exclusion from the list: My shopping list includes everything you told me to buy, and nothing else.

There are quite a few commentators—Bryson I984, Barzun I985, Hesch I964, Copperud I960, I964, 1970, I980, and Bernstein I965 among them—who maintain that include should not be used when a complete list of items follows the verb.

The prison includes 22 enclosed acres and a farm of 1,000 acres west and south of the walls – American Guide Series: Minnesota, I938

His clubs include the Athenaeum, the Carlton, the Farmers’, the Beefsteak, and Grillion’s – Current Biography, September I964

There is nothing wrong with either of these examples. They fit the requirements of Fowler I926, 1965 perfectly:

With include, there is no presumption (though it is often the fact) that all or even most of the components are mentioned….

The critics above, however, have somehow reasoned themselves into the notion that with include all of the components must not be mentioned, which has never been the case. Fowler’s comments accurately describe how include is used.

include, comprise

It should be recalled that the second of these seems to be prevailing in its battle with compose, regrettable though that is.

Comprise is simultaneously competing with include. When two words such as include and comprise have roughly the same meaning, examination will generally reveal a distinction; and the distinction between the present two seems to be that comprise is appropriate when the content of the whole is in question, and include only when the admission or presence of an item is in question: good writers say comprise when looking at the matter from the point of view of the whole, include from that of the part. With include, there is no presumption (though it is often the fact) that all or even most of the components are mentioned; with comprise, the whole of them are understood to be in the list. Thus the University of Oxford includes All Souls, Christ Church, Magdalen College, and Somerville College; but it comprises All Souls, Balliol College, Brasenose College, and more than 30 other colleges, as well as several permanent halls. This leads to the distinction that one cannot legitimately say that the University of Oxford comprises All Souls, Christ Church, Magdalen College, and Somerville College; in such a context only includes is correct. Similarly, include, not comprise, must be used in the following example: The Serbian forces attacking Sarajevo are units of the former Federal army: they do not include regiments still stationed in Zagreb.

我班包括34名男生20名女生。

Our class consists of (not includes) 34 boys and 20 girls.

受伤的人包括他爸。

The injured include (not consist of) his dad.

Among the injured is his dad.