system

Noun

1. A group or set of related things that operate together as a complex whole.
   • Every age has its characteristic, and our present one is not behind its predecessors in that respect; it is the age of systems, every system enforced by a treatise. The politician who opposes the corn-laws and advocates...
   • The bass and treble clefs combined, include all the sounds belonging to our musical system, as they appear on a 6½-octave pianoforte, extending from C C C in the bass to F in altissimo. - [1848], J[ames] A[lexander]...
   • Similar studies of rats have employed four different intracranial resorbable, slow sustained release systems—surgical foam, a thermal gel depot, a microcapsule or biodegradable polymer beads. - 2013 May–June, Charles T....

   Synonyms: arrangement complex composition organization set up structure

   1. (computing) A set of hardware and software operating in a computer.

      • WIPO [the World Intellectual Property Organization] reported that China had 17 of the top 20 academic organizations filing for AI-related patents. It noted China was especially strong in the fast-growing area of "deep...

      Synonyms: arrangement complex composition organization set up structure

   2. (mathematics) A set of equations involving the same variables, which are to be solved simultaneously.

      • The method of solving systems of equations by matrices that we will look at is based on procedures involving equations that we are familiar with from previous mathematics courses. The main idea is to reduce a given...

      Synonyms: arrangement complex composition organization set up structure

   3. (music) A set of staves linked by a brace that indicate instruments or sounds that are to be played simultaneously.

      • To notate music that is played on a piano or is played by different musicians on various instruments, one often uses several staves to notate the various musical voices. A single vertical line drawn to the left of...

      Synonyms: arrangement complex composition organization set up structure

   4. (physiology) A set of body organs having a particular function.

      • the digestive system the nervous system
      • Animals have evolved a variety of digestive systems to utilise fibre. The kangaroos have evolved a digestive system that has much in common with those found in ruminant mammals from other continents, but there are also...

      Synonyms: arrangement complex composition organization set up structure apparatus

   5. (multiplicity) A set of alters of a person, or the multiple (“an individual with multiple personalities”) who contains them.

      • But that alter often turns out to be relatively recent and fairly peripheral in the multiple's total system of alters. - 1995, Stephen E. Braude, First Person Plural: Multiple Personality and the Philosophy of Mind,...
      • Rosie's courage allowed her to engage with me quickly and soon provided reassurance to others in the system that I was safe and non-abusive. Soon after, a number of other alters made themselves known to me. […] I was...

      Synonyms: arrangement complex composition organization set up structure multiple plural system

   6. (astronomy) A system in which two or more objects are bound to each other by gravity.

      • There are eight planets in the solar system.
      • Yukawa is a small rock planet with a thin atmosphere of carbon dioxide. After a labor dispute with companies shipping metallic asteroids to the nearby Arcturus system, Yukawa's iron core and blanket of hematite were...

      Synonyms: arrangement complex composition organization set up structure

   7. (philosophy) A comprehensive and logically organized set of propositions or philosophical beliefs.

      • In the footnote attached to this statement Rosen refers to the “hypnotic” quality of Kojève’s system. - 2019, David McIlwain, Michael Oakeshott and Leo Strauss: The Politics of Renaissance and Enlightenment, →ISBN, page...

      Synonyms: arrangement complex composition organization set up structure

   8. (derogatory, preceded by the, often capitalized) The mainstream culture, controlled by the elites or government of a state, or a combination of them, seen as oppressive to the individual.

      • Meronyms: the man, yes men, elephant in the room, emperor's new clothes, Leviathan, Big Brother
      • “Overwork started his illness, kept it alight, and killed him, poor devil. Write him off to the System - one man to do the work of two-and-a-half men.” - 1888, Rudyard Kipling, “The Phantom Rickshaw”, in The Phantom...
      • Some had already been incarcerated for several months awaiting trial, and some were being returned to their cells at Long Bay to wait several months longer ere they would have an` opportunity of disproving the...

      Synonyms: arrangement complex composition organization set up structure

   9. (roleplaying games) A set of rules for a tabletop roleplaying game.

      Synonyms: arrangement complex composition organization set up structure

   10. (politics) A socioeconomic formation.

       • The capitalist system

       Synonyms: arrangement complex composition organization set up structure

2. A method or way of organizing or planning.
   • Followers should have a system to follow that works in their interests, not against them.
   • But ſo Matters fell out, and ſo I muſt relate them; and if any Reader is ſhocked at their appearing unnatural, I cannot help it. I must remind ſuch Persons, that I am not writing a Syſtem, but a Hiſtory, and I am not...
   • As we passed along, the party of Too-wit (the whole hundred and ten savages of the canoes) was momentarily strengthened by smaller detachments, of from two to six or seven, which joined us, as if by accident, at...