Emily Dickinson Lexicon

SYN'THE-SIS, n. [Gr. συνθεσις; συν, and τιθημι, to put or set.]

1. Composition, or the putting of two or more things together, as in compound medicines. – Cyc.
2. In logic, composition, or that process of reasoning in which we advance by a regular chain from principles before established or assumed, and propositions already proved, till we arrive at the conclusion. Synthesis is the opposite of analysis or resolution. – Encyc.
3. In surgery, the operation by which divided parts are reunited. – Cyc.
4. In chimistry, the uniting of elements into a compound; the opposite of analysis, which is the separation of a compound into its constituent parts. That water is composed of oxygen and hydrogen, is proved both by analysis and synthesis.