gestalt

noun

ge·​stalt gə-ˈstält 

-ˈshtält,

-ˈstȯlt,

-ˈshtȯlt 

plural gestalts also gestalten gə-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

Example Sentences

the gestalt of human consciousness

Recent Examples on the Web

For some, the gestalt of pandan goes even further back than childhood. Samuel Anderson, Vogue, 2 Nov. 2022

The overall gestalt of the approach is that a spy is being placed in the midst of the firm. Lance Eliot, Forbes, 13 Aug. 2022

These run as distinctive currents throughout and lend to an overall gestalt as satisfying as a fine musical album that leaves thrum and echo in its wake. oregonlive, 6 Apr. 2022

One woman is sure that the new management will bring new occupants and a new overall attitude, but another argues that the Chelsea’s bohemian excess is baked into its gestalt. Daniel Fienberg, The Hollywood Reporter, 12 Feb. 2022

Instead, the directors deliver the gestalt of the Chelsea, the overall sensation conveyed by the building, its past and its scaffolded present. Daniel Fienberg, The Hollywood Reporter, 12 Feb. 2022

When the film doesn’t fit with NASA’s gestalt, filmmakers can’t use the agency’s logo. Washington Post, 16 Jan. 2022

In 1980, a year after she was hired to run Interiors, Ms. Russell told The New York Times that her editorial vision would embrace the go-go gestalt of the impending decade. New York Times, 29 Dec. 2021

It’s an eerie gestalt, a foreboding feeling of unbookiness. Ian Bogost, The Atlantic, 14 Sep. 2021

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Word History

Etymology

German, literally, shape, form

First Known Use

1922, in the meaning defined above

Medical Definition

gestalt

noun

ge·​stalt gə-ˈs(h)tält  -ˈs(h)tȯlt 

plural gestalten -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