greater/better/more than the sum of its parts

idiom

—used to say that something is better or more effective as a team, combination, etc., than would be expected when looking at the different parts that form it

The team lacks standout players, but it has proved to be greater than the sum of its parts.

Examples of greater/better/more than the sum of its parts in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Four years ago, David Zaslav insisted that Discovery Communications together with what was then called WarnerMedia was more than the sum of its parts. —Cynthia Littleton, Variety, 9 June 2025

But screenwriter Micho Robert Rutare, working from a story devised with Trachtenberg, ties things together in an extremely clever, satisfying manner that won’t be disclosed here but that makes the film more than the sum of its parts. —Frank Scheck, HollywoodReporter, 5 June 2025

This fleet, O’Meara adds, is more than the sum of its parts, with much of its power emerging from synergies among multiple telescopes that study the cosmos in many different types, or wavelengths, of light. —Nadia Drake, Scientific American, 3 June 2025

Maybe a Leafs team that’s been stripped down and humbled and then partially built back up can actually be more than the sum of its parts. —Sean McIndoe, New York Times, 21 May 2025