

Synergism is also used in a more specific way in the context of medicine to refer to the cooperation between multiple body parts, such as muscles or nerves, or the interaction of drugs or other stimuli. The word implies that the magic is in the combination, as opposed to in the individual elements themselves. But when something extra happens, something greater, this is synergism. When you combine things-chemicals, ingredients, people-you often expect these things to interact in a certain way based on what has been included.

In other words, it is what happens when a combination of things produces an effect or result that is said to be “greater than the sum of its parts.” Synergism is a less common word for synergy, which refers to when an interaction of elements produces an effect that is greater than the effect that would have resulted from simply adding up the effects of each individual element.
