1. the bringing together of disparate parts or elements—be they they physical or conceptual—into a whole. For example, biosynthesis is the process by which chemical or biochemical compounds are formed from their constituents, and mental synthesis involves combining ideas and images into meaningful objects of thought.

2. in philosophy, the final stage of a dialectical process: a third proposition that resolves the opposition between thesis and antithesis. The synthesis then serves as the thesis in the next phase of the ongoing dialectic. This use of the term is particularly associated with the thought of German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831). See also dialectical materialism. —synthetic adj.