Sŷn'the-sis, n.
n.; pl. SŸN'THE-SĒS. [Lat., Gr. σύνθεσις, from συντιθέναι, to place or put together, from σύν, with, and τιθέναι, to place, θέσις, a placing; Fr. synthèse.]
Sense 1. Composition, or the putting of two or more things together, as in compound medicines.
Sense 2. (Chem.) The uniting of elements to form a compound;—the opposite of analysis; as, that water is composed of oxygen and hydrogen, is proved both by analysis and synthesis.
Sense 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 W. Hamilton.
Sense 4. (Surg.) The operation by which divided parts are re-united.