# word of mouth (excess)

*Ordinarily means:* information spreading from person to person through conversation.

A pattern that grows because its spread is the same as its reception, so the whole becomes more than the sum of its parts without central source or control.

- Computed level: L11 (depth in the emergence graph, not abstraction)
- Status: review  ·  Domain: social  ·  Arena: communication

## Emergence
**Emerges from:** [pattern](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-pattern.regularity), [interaction](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-interaction.process), [whole](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-whole.complete), [greater than the sum](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-greater-than-the-sum.excess)

**Through:** interaction.process

**Novel properties:**
- greater-than-the-sum.excess

## Examples
- The 2011 Egyptian Revolution spread through shared stories of police brutality, bypassing state media and accelerating via personal networks. *(institutions)*
- The 1989 adoption of the fax machine in Japan exceeded projections as each new user made the network more valuable to others. *(economics)*
- The 2016 Pokemon Go craze saw daily downloads double weekly for a month, driven entirely by peer excitement in parks and schools. *(everyday life)*

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*Canonical: https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-word-of-mouth.excess*  
*Structured data: https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-word-of-mouth.excess.json*  
*Every definition provably resolves to space, time, energy and pattern.*