
[Medieval Latin macrocosmus : Greek makro-, macro- + Greek kosmos, world.]
macrocosmic mac'ro·cos'mic adj.The macrocosm is the world as a whole, with a microcosm being one small part, often mankind, taken as a model of it. Thus the universe may be regarded as a large living organism (see panpsychism). The idea was central to most Greek thought, and especially that of Pythagoras, Plato and subsequent Neoplatonism. In Leibniz the monads are microcosms of the world, since each in itself mirrors the entire universe.

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Macrocosm and microcosm is an ancient Greek Neo-Platonic schema of seeing the same patterns reproduced in all levels of the cosmos, from the largest scale (macrocosm or universe-level) all the way down to the smallest scale (microcosm or sub-sub-atomic or even metaphysical-level). In the system the mid-point is Man, who summarizes the cosmos.
The Greeks were philosophically concerned with a rational explanation of everything and saw the repetition of the golden ratio throughout the world and all levels of reality as a step towards this unifying theory. In short, it is the recognition that the same traits appear in entities of many different sizes, from one man to the entire human population.
Macrocosm/microcosm is a Greek compound of μακρο- "Macro-" and μικρο- "Micro-", which are Greek respectively for "large" and "small", and the word κόσμος kósmos which means "order" as well as "world" or "ordered world."
Today, the concept of microcosm has been dominated by sociology to mean a small group of individuals whose behavior is typical of a larger social body encompassing it. A microcosm can be seen as a special kind of epitome. Conversely, a macrocosm is a social body made of smaller compounds.
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Dansk (Danish)
n. - makrokosmos
Nederlands (Dutch)
macrokosmos, universum, grote wereld, iets dat op grote schaal een van zijn onderdelen nabootst
Français (French)
n. - macrocosme
Deutsch (German)
n. - Makrokosmos, Universum
Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - μακρόκοσμος, σύμπαν
Português (Portuguese)
n. - macrocosmo (m)
Русский (Russian)
макрокосм, вселенная
Español (Spanish)
n. - macrocosmo
Svenska (Swedish)
n. - makrokosmos, vidare (större) begrepp
中文(简体)(Chinese (Simplified))
大宇宙, 全域, 大世界, 整体
中文(繁體)(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 大宇宙, 全域, 大世界, 整體
한국어 (Korean)
n. - 대우주, 대세계, 전체
日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 大宇宙, 複合体, 総体, 大世界
العربيه (Arabic)
(الاسم) كوني
עברית (Hebrew)
n. - היקום, העולם, מקרוקוסמוס
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