synthesis

[sin-thuh-sis]

noun

plural

syntheses 

1. the combining of the constituent elements of separate material or abstract entities into a single or unified entity (analysis ).

2. a complex whole formed by combining.

3. Chemistry.,  the forming or building of a more complex substance or compound from elements or simpler compounds.

4. Philosophy.,  the third stage of argument in Hegelian dialectic, which reconciles the mutually contradictory first two propositions, thesis and antithesis.

5. Biology.,  modern synthesis, a consolidation of the results of various lines of investigation from the 1920s through the 1950s that supported and reconciled the Darwinian theory of evolution and the Mendelian laws of inheritance in terms of natural selection acting on genetic variation.

6. Psychology, Psychiatry.,  the integration of traits, attitudes, and impulses to create a total personality.

synthesis

/ ˈsɪnθɪsɪs /

noun

1. the process of combining objects or ideas into a complex whole Compare analysis

2. the combination or whole produced by such a process

3. the process of producing a compound by a chemical reaction or series of reactions, usually from simpler or commonly available starting materials

4. linguistics the use of inflections rather than word order and function words to express the syntactic relations in a language Compare analysis

5. archaic,  philosophy synthetic reasoning

6. philosophy

   1. (in the writings of Kant) the unification of one concept with another not contained in it Compare analysis

   2. the final stage in the Hegelian dialectic, that resolves the contradiction between thesis and antithesis

synthesis

plural

syntheses 

1. The formation of a chemical compound through the combination of simpler compounds or elements.

Other Word Forms

• synthesist noun
• nonsynthesis noun
• resynthesis noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of synthesis¹

First recorded in 1580–90; from Latin, from Greek sýnthesis, from syn- syn- + the- (stem of tithénai “to put, place”) + -sis -sis

Word History and Origins

Origin of synthesis¹

C17: via Latin from Greek sunthesis, from suntithenai to put together, from _syn- + tithenai to place

Example Sentences

By refining raw arsenic and developing improved synthesis methods, the UH-led team created boron arsenide crystals with significantly fewer imperfections.

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I had this moment of synthesis and went, “We’re not an element; we’re the human beings. Everything else is a subset of us, including all the data.”

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It is a key component of protein synthesis and is abundant in protein-rich foods like meat, dairy products, and legumes such as beans and lentils.

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Harvesting the pigment from animals isn't scalable or efficient, and traditional lab methods are labor intensive, reliant on chemical synthesis that is low yielding.

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"This example of diamond synthesis is the ultimate demonstration that electrons do not destroy organic molecules but let them undergo well-defined chemical reactions, if we install suitable properties in molecules to be irradiated," he said.

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Related Words

• amalgam 
• fusion