a configuration, pattern, or organized field having specific properties that cannot be derived from the summation of its component parts; a unified whole.
an instance or example of such a unified whole.
1920–25; < German: figure, form, structure
A gestalt has two or more parts (like figure and ground) that are so integrated together that we perceive them as one object. Think of teaching "the whole child," and you have the idea behind gestalt. The perception of oneness from many is the basis of gestalt. It derived from the 1890 German philosophy of Gestaltqualität, meaning "form or shape," which explored the idea of perception. For example, a picture might have several separate parts that work together to form one perceived image. The area of gestalt psychology developed in 1912, focusing on the various aspects of a person and how they combine into a whole that affects that person's relationship with his or her environment.
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Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Some might find it humanizing—proof that below the bloviating gestalt, the president can become awed by existential futility.
From Slate ● Jun. 11, 2026
Or, as in “Stranger Things” and “Weapons,” the gestalt entity may be ruled by one being devoted to conquest and control.
From Salon ● Dec. 29, 2025
And if you take things out, you’re losing the power of the gestalt, essentially, of the larger gesture that they made.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 6, 2025
On the title track, listeners are greeted with glitchy vocal samples before Joachim puts new elements into the gestalt, and quickly.
From New York Times ● Feb. 29, 2024
It was the creation of the gestalt Bobby needed to prove to himself that he was capable of dominance.
From "Endgame" by Frank Brady
In March Gestalt sent her the statuette, she said, assuring her that it contained a wiretap and a tracker.
From BBC ● Jan. 25, 2024
They add mice may even have a "Gestalt of visual self-image," meaning they could have individualistic personalities.
From Salon ● Dec. 7, 2023
Gestalt in hand, Nixon then settled in for a quick nine-to-midnight nap.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 13, 2023
She was already trained in the Gestalt approach, a form of psychotherapy aiming to center the person on the present.
From Slate ● Feb. 23, 2023
The cognitive sum total is of a Gestalt nature-much higher than the sum of its parts.
From The Civilization of Illiteracy by Nadin, Mihai
The asceticism with which he regarded life in general is expressed in a letter to Emilie Reinbeck, 1843, in which he says: "Wer die Welt gestalten helfen will, muss darauf verzichten, sie zu geniessen."
From Types of Weltschmerz in German Poetry by Braun, Wilhelm Alfred
Far from being cases of 'stuff', museums are gestalts — complete entities that capture and contextualize the past.
From Nature ● Aug. 15, 2017
Man produces gestalts, and cuts form out of the plethora of nothingness.
From Warm by Emshwiller, Ed
We’re replacing the whole thing with broadband uplinks of gestalts from each of the Presidents’ lives: newspaper headlines, speeches, distilled biographies, personal papers.
From Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom by Doctorow, Cory
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
