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

But in most English humor,--as indeed in all English literature except the very highest,--the social class to which the writer does not belong is regarded ab extra.

From Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern — Volume 6 by Mabie, Hamilton Wright

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

The first question, then, for the historian should be, What accounts does this nation give of its early history? the second, What account of this nation's early history can be obtained ab extra?

From An Illustrated History of Ireland from AD 400 to 1800 by Cusack, Mary Frances

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