gestalt
Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also Gestalt
Contents |
English[edit]
Alternative forms[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Borrowing from German Gestalt (“shape, figure, form”). The German term can also apply to a geometric or graphical shape, but that is not the case when this word is used in English.
Pronunciation[edit]
Noun[edit]
gestalt (plural gestalts or gestalten)
- A collection of physical, biological, psychological or symbolic elements that creates a whole, unified concept or pattern which is other than the sum of its parts, due to the relationships between the parts (of a character, personality, entity, or being)
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- This biography is the first one to consider fully the writer's gestalt.
- The clusters of behavioral gestalten... the probability factors... the subtypes of crimes... the constellations of criminal subtypes... — Jay Kirk, "Watching the Detectives", Harpers Magazine, Vol. 307, Iss. 1839; pg. 61, Aug, 2003
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- shape, form
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- Mary did not approve of the Eleanor gestalt. "I been to Woonsocket S.D., Eleanor McGovern's hometown," she said, "and nobody there? I mean nobody? dresses like that." — John L Hess and Karen Hess, "The Taste of America", Grossman, New York, 1977
- ... depending on the kinds of speech children hear directed to them, they may first learn unanalyzed "gestalts" (e.g., social expressions like "What's that?" uttered as a single unit) instead of learning single words that are then freely recombined ...— Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, "The Origins of Grammar", The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 1996
- So different were our appearances and approaches and general gestalts that we had something of an epic rivalry from '74 through '77. — David Foster Wallace, "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again", Boston: Little, Brown and Co., Edition: 1st Back Bay ed., 1998
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