# gestalt
## English
### Etymology

Borrowed from German Gestalt (“shape, figure, form”).

### Pronunciation

* (UK) IPA: /ɡəˈʃtælt/, /ɡəˈʃtɑːlt/, /-ˈst-/
** Audio (Southern England):(file)
* (US) IPA: /ɡəˈʃtɔlt/, /ɡəˈstɔlt/

### Noun

gestalt (plural gestalts or gestalten)
* A collection of physical, biological, psychological or symbolic elements that creates a whole, unified concept or pattern which is other than the sum of its parts, due to the relationships between the parts (of a character, personality, entity, or being).
    This biography is the first one to consider fully the writer's gestalt.
** 1977, John L. Hess, Karen Hess, The Taste of America, New York: Grossman:Mary did not approve of the Eleanor gestalt. "I been to Woonsocket S.D., Eleanor McGovern's hometown," she said, "and nobody there? I mean nobody? dresses like that."
** 1980, George Lakoff, Mark Johnson, chapter 15, in Metaphors We Live By:Thus one activity, talking, is understood in terms of another, physical fighting. Structuring our experience in terms of such multidimensional gestalts is what makes our experience coherent.
** 1996, Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, The Origins of Grammar, Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press:[…] depending on the kinds of speech children hear directed to them, they may first learn unanalyzed "gestalts" (e.g., social expressions like "What's that?" uttered as a single unit) instead of learning single words that are then freely recombined […]
** 1998, David Foster Wallace, A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again, 1st Back Bay edition, Boston: Little, Brown and Co.:So different were our appearances and approaches and general gestalts that we had something of an epic rivalry from '74 through '77.
** 2003 August, Jay Kirk, “Watching the Detectives”, in Harpers Magazine‎, volume 307, number 1839, page 61:The clusters of behavioral gestalten... the probability factors... the subtypes of crimes... the constellations of criminal subtypes...
** 2008, Jonathan Nasaw, Fear Itself:Obviously it was related to the entire gestalt of Simon's polyphobia and compensatory counterphobia. The boys used to watch horror movies on late-night television […]
** 2025 March 6, Sheryl Gay Stolberg, quoting Bill Cassidy, “A Skeptical G.O.P. Senator Makes His Peace With Kennedy”, in The New York Times‎, →ISSN:“He [Robert F. Kennedy Jr.] also said, ‘We’re making vaccinations available. We’re doing this for vaccination. We’re doing that for vaccination.’ So if you take the gestalt of it, the gestalt was, ‘Let’s get vaccinated!’”

#### Alternative forms

* Gestalt

#### Derived terms

* gestaltic
* gestalting
* gestaltism
* gestaltist
* gestalt psychology
* Gestalt therapy, gestalt therapy

#### Translations
### Anagrams

* taglets

## Indonesian
### Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from German Gestalt (“shape, figure, form”).

### Noun

gestalt (plural gestalt-gestalt)
* (psychology) gestalt: a collection of physical, biological, psychological or symbolic elements that creates a whole, unified concept or pattern which is other than the sum of its parts, due to the relationships between the parts (of a character, personality, entity, or being)

### Further reading

* “gestalt” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016.

## Polish
### Alternative forms

* Gestalt

### Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from German Gestalt. Doublet of kształt.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈɡɛʂ.talt/
* Rhymes: -ɛʂtalt
* Syllabification: ges‧talt

### Noun

gestalt m inan
* (psychology) gestalt

#### Declension
### Further reading

* gestalt in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
* gestalt in Polish dictionaries at PWN

## Swedish
### Etymology

Borrowed from German Gestalt. Attested since 1623.

### Pronunciation

* Audio:(file)

### Noun

gestalt c
* a figure ((shape of a) being, especially a human or human-like being)
    de centrala gestalterna i berättelsenthe central figures (characters) in the story
    en lång gestalt skymtade i dimmana tall figure could be seen through the mist
* (more rarely, somewhat poetic) a shape, a form (more generally)
* a gestalt (a whole different from the sum of its parts)

#### Usage notes

More everyday-sounding compared to English gestalt in (sense 1), matching figure in tone as well.

#### Related terms

* gestalta

#### See also

* figur

### References

* gestalt in Svensk ordbok (SO)
* gestalt in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
* gestalt in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)