Definition of gestalt
plural gestalts
also gestalten
play
\-ˈstäl-tᵊn, -ˈshtäl-, -ˈstȯl-, -ˈshtȯl-\
: something that is made of many parts and yet is somehow more than or different from the combination of its parts
- When he gets rolling, you're not responding to single jokes—it's the whole gestalt of the movie that's funny.
- —Pauline Kael
- When new employees are recruited fresh out of college and can look forward to working for the same company for 40 years, it changes the gestalt of management.
- —Brenton R. Schlender
- … the Old Hollywood gestalt, where daughters adored and romanticized their charismatic, powerful, often unavailable fathers.
- —Nora Johnson
