ensemble means A group of separate things that contribute to a coordinated whole.; A coordinated set of clothing: a set of garments selected to accompany one another.
ensemble is pronounced /ˌɒ̃nˈsɒ̃m.bl̩/.
Why “ensemble” is a great word
A set of distinct elements—clothes, musicians, instruments—designed to be perceived not as a collection of parts but as a single, coherent entity, from the French ensemble ("together, as a whole"), itself from the Latin phrase insimul ("at the same time, together"), from in- ("in") + simul ("at the same time"). Unlike a "solo," which spotlights the singular voice, or an "outfit," which is confined to the sartorial, ensemble insists on the mathematics of addition: one plus one becoming something neither could achieve alone. It is the string section breathing as a single lung, the deliberate clash of patterns in a well-dressed crowd, and the hush before the quartet begins—the quiet understanding that coherence is not the erasure of difference but its most elegant arrangement.
Etymology
Borrowed from French ensemble.
noun
- A group of separate things that contribute to a coordinated whole.; A coordinated set of clothing: a set of garments selected to accompany one another.e.g.“Near-synonyms: suit, costume, getup”
- A group of separate things that contribute to a coordinated whole.; A group of musicians, dancers, actors, etc who perform together; e.g. the chorus of a ballet company.
- A piece for several instrumentalists or vocalists.
- A probability distribution for the state of the system.
- A supervised learning algorithm combining multiple hypotheses.
verb
- To put together in a coordinated whole.
- To perform in a musical ensemble.
- To employ a supervised learning algorithm combining multiple hypotheses.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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