Kokonaisverta

Kokonaisverta is a Finnish term formed from kokonais, meaning “whole” or “total,” and verta, meaning “comparison.” It is not a standardized concept in Finnish scholarly vocabulary and does not have a single universally accepted definition. The phrase appears mainly in informal glossaries and discussions about evaluation methods that emphasize wholes rather than parts, so its precise meaning is largely determined by context.

In mathematics and logic, kokonaisverta is sometimes described as a holistic comparison approach, where two objects are judged by a global property of the object as a whole rather than by its components. In linguistics or discourse studies, the term may denote comparing texts or utterances as complete units to assess overall meaning or function, rather than analyzing individual words or phrasing. In data analysis and information science, it can refer to comparing entire records or profiles to evaluate similarity, as opposed to per-field matching.

Because the term lacks a formal definition, researchers who use kokonaisverta typically specify the exact method and criteria within their work. This contextual usage can limit comparability across studies but allows practitioners to tailor the concept to specific analytic goals. Related ideas include holistic assessment, total-ordering, and equivalence relations, which share an emphasis on evaluating entities as unified wholes rather than as collections of parts.