integrate

integrate, articulate, concatenate are comparable when they mean to bring or join together a number of distinct things so that they move, operate, or function as a unit. The implications of these senses are probably more often found in the participial adjectives integrated, articulated, concatenated and in the derived nouns integration, articulation, concatenation than in the finite verbs.

Integrate implies that the things (as parts, elements, factors, or details) combined are brought into such intimate connection with each other that a perfect whole results. Usually it suggests a complete fusion or coalescence of particulars with loss therefore of their separate identities

{

a customs union that . . . would integrate the economies of the two countries— Current Biog.

}

{

cartels or other forms of highly integrated organization— J. S. Martin

}

{

he relies heavily upon the researches of others, and his condensation and integration of their findings perhaps form his main contribution— Angoff

}

Articulate also implies as its result a perfect whole, but it differs from integrate in implying no loss of identity or of distinctness of the things (as parts, branches, and departments) combined and in suggesting a connection between them that is found in its perfection in the skeletons of vertebrate animals. For articulate implies organization in which each part fits into another in a manner comparable to the fitting into each other of two bones at a movable joint and a structure is built up that functions as a whole yet without loss of flexibility or distinctness in any of its component units or without any conflict between them

{

hard put to it to devise ways of participation for children, and means of articulating their school life with the rest of life— Mead

}

{

few people have definitely articulated philosophies of their own— James

}

{

the two ideas have been transferred from a conglomerate to an articulated unity— Weaver

}

{

in four years the principate had scarcely begun that process of articulation which was to make it one of the most complex and yet smooth-running systems of government known to history— Buchan

}

Concatenate suggests neither fusion nor organization but a linking together of smaller units until figuratively a powerful chain is forged. It implies addition of one thing to another with cumulative effect

{

not one cause brings about war, but a concatenation of causes

}

{

the present work comprises five essays nicely concatenated— Hocking

}

{

the theory of the state is developed in a closely concatenated line of thought— Sabine

}

{

could not help thinking that the concatenation of events this evening had produced was the scheme of some sinister intelligence bent on punishing him— Hardy

}

Analogous words: *unite, combine, conjoin: unify, consolidate, concentrate, *compact: fuse, blend, merge, coalesce (see MIX): organize, systematize (see ORDER)

Antonyms: disintegrate

Contrasted words: crumble, decompose (see DECAY): dissipate, disperse, *scatter: *analyze, resolve, break down