{
  "id": "groundswell.emergence",
  "term": "groundswell",
  "sense": "emergence",
  "pos": "noun",
  "status": "review",
  "level": 12,
  "arena": "social dynamics",
  "domain": "emergent phenomena",
  "style": "folk",
  "definition": "a rise that is not in any part before it begins, yet exceeds all parts once it has started, revealing the wall where the whole becomes possible only after drift has closed the window of the separate.",
  "folk_gloss": "a growing movement or feeling that starts quietly and becomes widespread.",
  "emergence": {
    "components": [
      "rise.movement",
      "drift.aimless",
      "window.range",
      "whole.complete",
      "part.relation",
      "threshold.boundary"
    ],
    "interaction": "interaction",
    "novel_properties": [
      "rise.movement",
      "drift.aimless",
      "window.range",
      "whole.complete",
      "part.relation",
      "threshold.boundary"
    ]
  },
  "examples": [
    {
      "text": "In 2010, the Tunisian uprising began with Mohamed Bouazizi's self-immolation, igniting nationwide protests that overthrew Zine El Abidine Ben Ali within four weeks.",
      "domain": "institutions"
    },
    {
      "text": "The 2003 blackout in Italy spread silently through grid instabilities until cascading failures darkened the entire national network within minutes.",
      "domain": "engineering"
    },
    {
      "text": "Flocking starlings in Rome’s EUR district shift direction simultaneously, a coordinated turn emerging only after local fluctuations align across the murmuration.",
      "domain": "biology"
    }
  ],
  "relations": [],
  "used_by": [],
  "forms": [
    "groundswell"
  ],
  "closed": false,
  "provenance": {
    "author": "phrases:qwen/qwen3-235b-a22b-2507",
    "date": "2026-07-29",
    "confidence": 0.7,
    "sources": [
      "folk phrase — the whole exceeding its parts"
    ]
  },
  "canonical": "https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-groundswell.emergence"
}