gestalt

noun ge·stalt \ gə-ˈstält , -ˈshtält , -ˈstȯlt , -ˈshtȯlt \

Updated on: 25 Apr 2018

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

broadly : the general quality or character of something

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

See gestalt defined for English-language learners

Examples of gestalt in a Sentence

the gestalt of human consciousness

Recent Examples of gestalt from the Web

In that sense, the performance affirmed Andover's original gestalt.

— richard mcgill murphy, Town & Country, "How John Palfrey Is Bringing America's Most Elite Boarding School Into the Digital Age," 7 July 2015
Being able to alter your route on the fly while still maintaining a pleasing gestalt will do wonders for your riding life.

— eben weiss, Outside Online, "The Art of Wayfinding," 4 Apr. 2018
There’s a science to the art of this particular fakery, the way the brain builds a gestalt world around selected details.

— boris kachka, New York Times, "The Visionaries Behind the Memorable Worlds of Film," 13 Sep. 2017
That gestalt could be felt throughout SXSW during its opening weekend, when both the film and interactive conferences got underway.

— ann hornaday, The Denver Post, "“Baby Driver,” buzz and the fickle weather system of South by Southwest," 21 Mar. 2017
So in the gestalt, his films leave compositional rather than human stains on the finished print.

— stella ko, CNN, "Jason Shulman condenses entire films into single photographs," 29 May 2017
My overall gestalt impression is that the two assistants are pretty evenly matched.

— alexis c. madrigal, The Atlantic, "20 Questions With Google's Assistant and Apple's Siri," 18 May 2017
That quick, heady gestalt, that immediate rush, is formal.

— jia tolentino, The New Yorker, "The Artist Sam McKinniss on Capturing Lorde in the Twilight," 24 Mar. 2017
The project typifies the Roosegaarde gestalt: technology and social relevance, connectivity and poetry joined together to create a way of experiencing the urban landscape.

— braden phillips, New York Times, "Rural Water, Not City Smog, May Be China’s Pollution Nightmare APRIL 11, 2016," 20 July 2016

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'gestalt.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Origin and Etymology of gestalt

German, literally, shape, form

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: 1922

in the meaning defined above

See Words from the same year

Other Psychology Terms

fetish, hypochondria, intelligence, mania, narcissism, neurosis, pathological, psychosis, schadenfreude, subliminal

Medical Dictionary

gestalt

noun ge·stalt \ gə-ˈs(h)tält , -ˈs(h)tȯlt \

medical Definition of gestalt

plural gestalten play \-ᵊn\ or gestalts

: a structure, arrangement, or pattern of physical, biological, or psychological phenomena so integrated as to constitute a functional unit with properties not derivable by summation of its parts