The wholeness of any portion of the world is the system of larger and smaller centers, their connection and overlap.

Entities in the same semantic neighborhood but without a typed relation to this one — candidates for new edges or unrecognized duplicates.

• Wholeness as Nested System of Centersframework0.854
  Alexander's quasi-mathematical definition of wholeness as a recursively nested system of living centers displaying local symmetries, approximating the overall gestalt of a configuration
• The wholeness is an autonomous and global structure, which is induced by the details of the configuration. It is a real physical and mathematical structure in space — but it is created indirectly, by symmetries and other relationships which are induced in the geometry.quote0.847
  Load-bearing statement encapsulating the nature of wholeness as a real, induced structure.
• The wholeness is a real structure, something geometrically concrete, not merely a general appreciation for unity.claim0.845
  Assertion that wholeness is a tangible spatial structure.
• Wholeness and Centersframework0.836
  Overarching conceptual scheme from The Nature of Order where a whole makes its parts, which are called centers, and centers intensify each other.
• Life comes from the wholeness, from the system of centers.quote0.836
  Summarizes the central thesis of the chapter.
• The wholeness W is a feature of physical space which appears everywhere and is susceptible to a clear mathematical definition.claim0.833
  Asserts the formal tractability of wholeness.
• Centers within a whole intensify each other, resulting in a profound and lively whole.claim0.826
  Alexander's core mechanism explaining how the Fifteen Properties function to create living wholes.
• Centers are above all, labile, they are foci of wholeness, they are not things, but regions, qualities, focal points of centeredness.quote0.819
  Key definition capturing the non-atomic, relational nature of centers as fields rather than objects.