ab extra
Americanadverb
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
"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
Discoursing upon the hypothesis of "a fortuitous concourse of atoms" Dr. Priestley asks, "what reason we have to think that small masses of matter can have power without communication ab extra?"
From Answer to Dr. Priestley's Letters to a Philosophical Unbeliever by Turner, Matthew
Admit candidly that the addition of intelligence at a certain stage, however mysteriously interwoven with structural accompaniments, is a gift ab extra, and we have at least a reasonable and so far satisfactory explanation.
From Creation and Its Records by Baden-Powell, Baden Henry
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
An impulse ab extra seems in a vast number of instances to be necessary, to promote the good of both nations and individuals.
From Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 435 Volume 17, New Series, May 1, 1852 by Chambers, Robert
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
