Holism

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A theory or belief that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. countable, uncountable
  2. 2
    the theory that the parts of any whole cannot exist and cannot be understood except in their relation to the whole wordnet
  3. 3
    A practice based on such a theory or belief. countable, uncountable

Synonyms

All synonyms
fullnessholistic theorytotalityunityuniversalitywholeness

Example

More examples

"Tom can talk for hours about the philosophy of holism."

Etymology

From hol- (“whole, entire, total”) + -ism. Coined in 1926 by Jan Smuts.

Related phrases

willard van orman quine

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.