ab extra

American  

[ahb ek-strah, ab ek-struh] / ɑb ˈɛk strɑ, æb ˈɛk strə /

adverb

Latin.

1. from the outside.

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Example Sentences

"It seems to me," he said, "that there is a guiding and directing principle ab extra which interacts with the material of the physical universe but is not of it."

From Time Magazine Archive

It is this character of life, I say, that so easily leads us to look upon it as something ab extra, or super-added to matter, and not an evolution from it.

From The Breath of Life by Burroughs, John

Viewed ab extra, there is no doubt the boldest policy is the best.

From The Life of the Rt. Hon. Sir Charles W. Dilke, Volume 1 by Gwynn, Stephen Lucius

So long as deistic views of the relation of God to man and the world held the field, revelation meant something interjected ab extra into the established order of things.

From An Outline of the History of Christian Thought Since Kant by Moore, Edward Caldwell

He created his epic, as metaphysicians have said that God created the world, by drawing it out of himself, not by building it up out of elements supplied ab extra.

From Milton by Pattison, Mark