{
  "id": "house-of-cards.stacked",
  "term": "house of cards",
  "sense": "stacked",
  "pos": "noun",
  "status": "review",
  "level": 15,
  "domain": "social systems, engineering, trust networks",
  "style": "folk",
  "definition": "A structure whose parts depend on one another in sequence, where the failure of any one part causes the whole to fall because no part is held up except by the next.",
  "folk_gloss": "something that seems stable but can collapse easily",
  "emergence": {
    "components": [
      "wall.range-end",
      "parameter.condition",
      "maintenance.upkeep",
      "dependence.condition",
      "collapse.failure"
    ],
    "interaction": "stacked dependency",
    "novel_properties": [
      "fragile stability",
      "sequential reliance",
      "zero redundancy"
    ]
  },
  "examples": [],
  "relations": [],
  "used_by": [],
  "forms": [
    "house of cards"
  ],
  "closed": false,
  "provenance": {
    "author": "phrases:qwen/qwen3-235b-a22b-2507",
    "date": "2026-07-29",
    "confidence": 0.7,
    "sources": [
      "folk phrase — stacked dependency"
    ]
  },
  "canonical": "https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-house-of-cards.stacked"
}