Word for an object within another object

I am looking for a word that defines an object or thing within another object or thing.

Like in the movie Inception: a dream within a dream.

Solution 1:

Recursive might be what you are after.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recursion

Solution 2:

I would use nested. For example, "a dream nested within another dream".

See, for example, Russian nesting dolls.

Solution 3:

The best word will depend on the context. Given the example of a dream within a dream, I assume that you're thinking of a distinct object that is inside another object, not an object which is a part of another object.

An object that is inside another object can be said to be embedded. The inner object can be of the same type as the outer object or of a different type. Some examples of usage include:

• A pole is embedded in the ground: it's inserted in the ground and can't be removed easily.
• An embedded journalist is one who belongs to the team that he's reporting on, for example an army reporter who is part of an army unit.
• A computer document that is embedded in another computer document is stored in the same file and displayed as part of the larger document, for example a picture in a word processor document.
• In linguistics, embedding refers to the ability to build up clauses that are part of a sentence. Recursion is embedding of a clause inside a clause of the same form.

Solution 4:

Subset:

Subset is defined as a portion, particularly in mathematics. An example of subset is a classroom to an entire school.

Component:

a constituent part or aspect of something more complex

Constituent, subunit, part...