synthesis Meaning, Definition & Usage

noun the process of producing a chemical compound (usually by the union of simpler chemical compounds)
noun the combination of ideas into a complex whole
synthetic thinking.
noun reasoning from the general to the particular (or from cause to effect)
deduction; deductive reasoning.

L., a mixture, properly, a putting together, Gr. , fr. to place or put together; with + to place. See Thesis.

plural Syntheses

Composition, or the putting of two or more things together, as in compounding medicines.
(Chem.) 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.
(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 W. Hamilton.