gestalt

[guh-shtahlt, -shtawlt, -stahlt, -stawlt]

noun

(sometimes initial capital letter)

plural

gestalts, gestalten 

1. a configuration, pattern, or organized field having specific properties that cannot be derived from the summation of its component parts; a unified whole.

2. an instance or example of such a unified whole.

Gestalt

/ ɡəˈʃtælt /

noun

1. (sometimes not capital) a perceptual pattern or structure possessing qualities as a whole that cannot be described merely as a sum of its parts See also Gestalt psychology

Word History and Origins

Origin of Gestalt¹

1920–25; < German: figure, form, structure

Word History and Origins

Origin of Gestalt¹

C20: German: form, from Old High German stellen to shape

Example Sentences

"For me, the foundation of the psychedelic experience is a gestalt experience, so you leave seeing things a different way than you went in."

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And if you take things out, you’re losing the power of the gestalt, essentially, of the larger gesture that they made.

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On the title track, listeners are greeted with glitchy vocal samples before Joachim puts new elements into the gestalt, and quickly.

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The two- or three-word tags, meant to convey the gestalt of a show or movie, regularly help viewers choose a show from the service’s nearly endless library, the company says.

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The guides, it said, reflect “the whole gestalt of India’s association with sky and space.”

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Related Words

• composition 
• contour 
• shape 
• structure