Word.ws English Dictionary

sum of its parts

sum of its parts noun: a group which can be seen as a mere juxtaposition of the elements that compose it; a collection of things in which there is no new property or added value that emerges from the interactions between its parts.

Noun

sum of its parts (plural sums of their parts)

  1. A group which can be seen as a mere juxtaposition of the elements that compose it; a collection of things in which there is no new property or added value that emerges from the interactions between its parts.
    • Together, the ant colony was greater than the sum of its parts.
    • The whole is different from the sum of its parts.4th century BCE, Aristotle, Metaphysics
    Synonyms:
    SOP

Synonyms of sum of its parts

Forms of sum of its parts

pluralsums of their parts
alternative formsum of parts

Questions about sum of its parts

What does sum of its parts mean?
Sum of its parts means a group which can be seen as a mere juxtaposition of the elements that compose it; a collection of things in which there is no new property or added value that emerges from the interactions between its parts.
What part of speech is sum of its parts?
Sum of its parts is a noun.
What is the plural of sum of its parts?
The plural of sum of its parts is sums of their parts.

Words near sum of its parts in the dictionary

  1. sulṭāns
  2. sum
  3. sum and substance
  4. sum assured
  5. sum of best
  6. sum of its parts
  7. sum of parts
  8. sum total
  9. sum totals
  10. sum up
  11. sum-total

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sum of its parts (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “sum of its parts.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sum_of_its_parts. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.