# system

Pronunciation: say "SIS-tuhm" /ˈsɪstəm/

## Noun

1. A group or set of related parts that work together as a single, complex whole.
   - Simple: A group of parts that work together as one whole.
   - _Engineers studied how each part of the transit system depended on the others._
   - _A coral reef forms a delicate system where many species rely on one another._
2. The combined hardware and software that operate together within a computer.
   - Simple: The hardware and software that work together to run a computer.
   - _The bank's computer system crashed, leaving customers unable to withdraw cash for hours._
   - _Administrators patched every system on the network overnight._
3. An organized method or set of rules and procedures for doing something or running an activity, such as a game.
   - Simple: An organized way of doing something, with rules or steps to follow.
   - _He developed a system for sorting incoming orders by priority._
   - _Their training system pairs each newcomer with an experienced mentor._
4. A set of body organs that work together to perform a particular function.
   - Simple: A group of body parts that work together to do one job.
   - _The respiratory system delivers oxygen to the blood and removes carbon dioxide._
   - _Damage to the immune system leaves the body open to infection._
5. Someone's body, or body and mind, treated as one whole, especially in how it responds to food, drugs, or shocks.
   - Simple: Your whole body, or body and mind, especially when food, drugs, or a shock has an effect on it.
   - _The blood test found traces of a sedative in his system._
   - _Losing her job and her home in the same week was a terrible shock to her system._
6. A particular socioeconomic order: the overall way a society structures its economy and political power.
   - Simple: The way a society organizes its economy and government.
   - _Historians debate how the feudal system gave way to early capitalism._
   - _A market system distributes goods through prices rather than central planning._
7. A set of two or more objects bound to one another by gravity, such as stars and the bodies orbiting them.
   - Simple: Two or more space objects held together by gravity.
   - _The binary system contains two stars locked in mutual orbit._
   - _Telescopes revealed a distant system of planets around a young star._
9. The mainstream institutions and culture controlled by a state's elites or government, regarded as oppressive to the individual.
   - Simple: The people in power and their rules, seen as unfair to ordinary people.
   - _Activists accused the system of crushing anyone who dared to dissent._
   - _As a teenager he wore ripped jeans and played loud punk music, sure he was rebelling against the system._
8. A comprehensive and logically organized set of propositions or philosophical beliefs that fit together as a coherent whole.
   - Simple: A complete, organized set of ideas or beliefs.
   - _Kant built a system that linked knowledge, morality, and aesthetics._
   - _Each metaphysical system tries to explain reality from a few basic principles._
10. A collection of equations in a common set of variables, all of which must be satisfied by the same solution.
   - Simple: A group of equations that you solve together at the same time.
   - _Students learned to solve the system using substitution and elimination._
   - _A linear system with more equations than unknowns may have no solution._
11. A set of musical staves joined at the left by a vertical line, sometimes with braces or brackets, showing parts to be played at the same time.
   - Simple: A group of music staves joined by a line at the left, showing parts that are played together.
   - _The orchestral score packs a dozen staves into each system._
   - _The engraver fit four systems on each page so the pianist could turn pages less often._

## Other meanings

- (noun) The set of distinct alters belonging to one person with multiple identities, or the multiple person who contains them.

## Origin

English took "system" partly from Middle French sisteme/systeme and partly straight from Late Latin systēma ("harmony; musical scale; set of things; system"). That came from Ancient Greek sústēma ("organized body; whole made of several parts"), formed from sunístēmi ("to combine, organize"): itself from sun- ("together") plus hístēmi ("to stand"), from the Proto-Indo-European root *steh₂- ("to stand").

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/system (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).