Definition of: system

(sis′təm) noun
1. Orderly combination or arrangement, as of parts or elements, into a whole; specifically, such combination according to some rational principle; any methodical arrangement of parts.
2. In science and philosophy, an orderly collection of logically related principles, facts, or objects.
3. Any group of facts and phenomena regarded as constituting a natural whole and furnishing the basis and material of scientific investigation and construction: the solar system.
4. The connection or manner of connection of parts as related to a whole, or the parts collectively so related; a whole as made up of constitutive parts: a railroad system.
5. The state or quality of being in order or orderly; orderliness; method: He works with system.
6. Physiol. An assemblage of organic structures composed of similar elements and combined for the same general functions: the nervous system; also, the entire body, taken as a functional whole.
7. Physics An aggregation of matter in, or tending to approach, equilibrium.
8. Mineral. One of the six divisions into which all crystal forms may be grouped, depending upon the relative lengths and mutual inclinations of the assumed crystal axes.
9. Geol. A category of rock strata next below a group and above a series and corresponding with a period in the time scale. [<LL systema a musical interval <Gk. systēma, -atos an organized whole <syn- together + histanai stand, set up] Synonyms: manner, method, mode, order, regularity, rule. Order in this connection denotes a fact or a result; as, These papers are in order. Method denotes a process; rule an authoritative requirement or an established course of things; system, not merely a law of action or procedure, but a comprehensive plan; manner refers to the external qualities of actions, and to those often as settled and characteristic; we speak of a system of taxation, a method of collecting taxes, the rules by which assessments are made; or we say, As a rule the payments are heaviest at a certain time of year; a just tax may be made odious by the manner of its collection. Regularity applies to even disposition of objects or uniform recurrence of acts in a series. There may be regularity without order, as in the recurrence of paroxysms of disease or insanity; there may be order without regularity, as in the arrangement of furniture in a room, where the objects are placed at varying distances. Order commonly implies the design of an intelligent agent or the appearance or suggestion of such design; regularity applies to an actual uniform disposition or recurrence with no suggestion of purpose, and as applied to human affairs is less intelligent and more mechanical than order. See BODY, FRAME, HABIT, HYPOTHESIS. Antonyms: chaos, confusion, derangement, disarrangement, disorder, irregularity.