synthesis
NounOpen English WordNet
Noun (3)syntheses
- the process of producing a chemical compound (usually by the union of simpler chemical compounds)Type of chemical process, chemical changeKinds nucleosynthesis, chemosynthesis, biosynthesis
- the combination of ideas into a complex wholeSynonyms: synthetic thinkingOpposite analysisType of reasoning, logical thinking
- reasoning from the general to the particular (or from cause to effect)Synonyms: deductiondeductive reasoningType of reasoning, logical thinkingKinds syllogism
What does it mean? Question 1 of today’s quiz
Webster's Dictionary (1913)
Origin: L., a mixture, properly, a putting together, Gr. …, fr. … to place or put together; σύν with + … to place. See Thesis.
1. Composition, or the putting of two or more things together, as in compounding medicines.
2. Chemistry The art or process of making a compound by putting the ingredients together, as contrasted with analysis; thus, water is made by synthesis from hydrogen and oxygen; hence, specifically, the building up of complex compounds by special reactions, whereby their component radicals are so grouped that the resulting substances are identical in every respect with the natural articles when such occur; thus, artificial alcohol, urea, indigo blue, alizarin, etc., are made by synthesis.
3. Logic The combination of separate elements of thought into a whole, as of simple into complex conceptions, species into genera, individual propositions into systems; — the opposite of analysis.
Analysis and synthesis, though commonly treated as two different methods, are, if properly understood, only the two necessary parts of the same method. Each is the relative and correlative of the other.— Sir William Hamilton
Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), from GCIDE 0.54
Free On-line Dictionary of Computing
<programming, specification> The process of deriving (efficient) programs from (clear) specifications.
See also program transformation.
(1996-08-23)