"sum of its parts" meaning in English

See sum of its parts in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: sums of their parts [plural]
Head templates: {{en-noun|sums of their parts}} sum of its parts (plural sums of their parts)
  1. Concept in holism related to the idea that the total effectiveness of a group of things each interacting with one another is different or greater than their effectiveness when acting in isolation from one another. Synonyms: sum of parts Related terms: economies of scale, synergy Translations (Translations): a részek/részei(nek) összege/összessége/együttese (Hungarian)
    Sense id: en-sum_of_its_parts-en-noun-iH-hMv79 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

Download JSON data for sum of its parts meaning in English (1.5kB)

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  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "sums of their parts",
      "tags": [
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          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
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      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Together, the ant colony was greater than the sum of its parts."
        },
        {
          "ref": "4th century BCE, Aristotle, Metaphysics",
          "text": "The whole is different from the sum of its parts.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Concept in holism related to the idea that the total effectiveness of a group of things each interacting with one another is different or greater than their effectiveness when acting in isolation from one another."
      ],
      "id": "en-sum_of_its_parts-en-noun-iH-hMv79",
      "links": [
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      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "economies of scale"
        },
        {
          "word": "synergy"
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      "synonyms": [
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          "word": "sum of parts"
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      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "hu",
          "lang": "Hungarian",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "a részek/részei(nek) összege/összessége/együttese"
        },
        {
          "code": "hu",
          "lang": "Hungarian",
          "note": "az alkotórészek/alkotórészei(nek)/alkotóelemek/alkotóelemei(nek) összege/összessége/együttese",
          "sense": "Translations"
        }
      ]
    }
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  "word": "sum of its parts"
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          "text": "The whole is different from the sum of its parts.",
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      "word": "a részek/részei(nek) összege/összessége/együttese"
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      "code": "hu",
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      "note": "az alkotórészek/alkotórészei(nek)/alkotóelemek/alkotóelemei(nek) összege/összessége/együttese",
      "sense": "Translations"
    }
  ],
  "word": "sum of its parts"
}
{
  "called_from": "translations/609-20230504",
  "msg": "Translation too long compared to word, so it is skipped",
  "path": [
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  "section": "English",
  "subsection": "noun",
  "title": "sum of its parts",
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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-05 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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