system

A solar system

A human digestive system

From French système (“system”) or Late Latin systēma (“system; harmony”), from Ancient Greek σύστημα (sústēma, “whole made of several parts or members”), from σύν (sún, “with, together”) + ἵστημι (hístēmi, “to stand”) (Proto-Indo-European *steh₂- (“to stand (up)”)).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈsɪstəm/
• (General American) enPR: sĭsʹtəm, IPA^(key): /ˈsɪstəm/

• Audio (GA)

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• Audio (AU)

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• Hyphenation: sys‧tem

system (plural systems)

1. A collection of organized things; a whole composed of relationships among its members. [from early 17th c.]

   Synonyms: arrangement, complex, composition, organization, set up, structure

   There are eight planets in the solar system.

   • 2013 May–June, Charles T. Ambrose, “Alzheimer’s Disease: The Great Morbidity of the 21st Century”, in American Scientist‎, volume 101, number 3, archived from the original on 24 April 2013, page 200:

     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.

   1. (derogatory) Preceded by the word the: the mainstream culture, controlled by the elites or government of a state, or a combination of them, seen as oppressive to the individual.
      • 1986, Madonna; Stephen Bray; Patrick Leonard (lyrics and music), “Where's the Party”, in True Blue, performed by Madonna:

        Don't want to grow old too fast / Don't want to let the system get me down / I've got to find a way to make the good times last / And if you'll show me how, I'm ready now

   2. (computing) A set of hardware and software operating in a computer.
      • 2019 February 3, “UN Study: China, US, Japan Lead World AI Development”, in Voice of America‎, archived from the original on 7 February 2019:

        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 learning." This is a machine learning method that includes speech and facial recognition systems.

   3. (mathematics) A set of equations involving the same variables, which are to be solved simultaneously.
   4. (music) A set of staves linked by a brace that indicate instruments or sounds that are to be played simultaneously.
   5. (physiology) A set of body organs having a particular function.

      the digestive system  the nervous system

   6. (psychiatry) A set of alters, or the multiple (“the individual with multiple personalities due to, for example, a dissociative personality disorder”) who contains them.
      • 1995, Stephen E. Braude, First Person Plural: Multiple Personality and the Philosophy of Mind, Rowman & Littlefield (→ISBN), page 56:

        But that alter often turns out to be relatively recent and fairly peripheral in the multiple's total system of alters.

      • 2017, Patricia Frankish, Valerie Sinason, Holistic Therapy for People with Dissociative Identity Disorder (→ISBN), page 79:

        […] I was initially very worried that I would offend the system by missing when switches occurred, or even misidentify [...]

2. A method or way of organizing or planning.

   Many people believed communism was a good system until the breakup of the Soviet Union.

   • 1749, Henry Fielding, “In which Fortune Seems to have been in a Better Humour with Jones than We have hitherto Seen Her”, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling. In Six Volumes, volume IV, London: Printed by A[ndrew] Millar, […], OCLC 928184292, book VIII, page 253:

     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 obliged to reconcile every Matter to the received Notions concerning Truth and Nature.

   • 1915, G[eorge] A. Birmingham [pseudonym; James Owen Hannay], chapter I, in Gossamer, New York, N.Y.: George H. Doran Company, OCLC 5661828, pages 13–14:

     As a political system democracy seems to me extraordinarily foolish, but I would not go out of my way to protest against it. My servant is, so far as I am concerned, welcome to as many votes as he can get. I would very gladly make mine over to him if I could.

   • 2012 March–April, John T[homas] Jost, “Social Justice: Is It in Our Nature (and Our Future)?”, in American Scientist‎, volume 100, number 2, archived from the original on 21 June 2017, page 162:

     He draws eclectically on studies of baboons, descriptive anthropological accounts of hunter-gatherer societies and, in a few cases, the fossil record. With this biological framework in place, [Peter] Corning endeavors to show that the capitalist system as currently practiced in the United States and elsewhere is manifestly unfair.

In attributive use, especially relating to computer systems, the plural is more common than the singular; one normally speaks of a systems engineer and not a system engineer.

• network

• system on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• stymes

From late Latin systēma, from Ancient Greek σύστημα (sústēma, “organised whole, body”), from σύν (sún, “with, together”) + ἵστημι (hístēmi, “I stand”).

• IPA^(key): /systeːm/, [syˈsd̥eːˀm]

system n (singular definite systemet, plural indefinite systemer)

1. system

• system on the Danish Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^da

• “system” in Den Danske Ordbog

From English system

• IPA^(key): /sis.tɛm/
• Homophone: système

system m (plural systems)

1. Word used in star system.

From Ancient Greek σύστημα (sústēma)

system n (definite singular systemet, indefinite plural system or systemer, definite plural systema or systemene)

1. a system

• “system” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

From Ancient Greek σύστημα (sústēma)

system n (definite singular systemet, indefinite plural system, definite plural systema)

1. system

• “system” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

• IPA^(key): /ˈsɨ.stɛm/

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system m inan

1. system

• system in Polish dictionaries at PWN

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system n

1. a system, a way or method of organizing items and knowledge
2. a computer system (primarily its hardware)
3. a system of restricted sales of alcohol, including state-owned monopoly shops

• system in Svenska Akademiens ordlista över svenska språket (13th ed., online)

system f (plural systemau)

1. system, method

• systematig (“systematic”)