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
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A people will no more quit their alphabet than they will quit their language; they will no more consent to modify the one ab extra than the other.
From English Past and Present by Palmer, Abram Smythe
But some of his expressions are objectionable, as they seem to assume a material substratum, animated ab extra by an infusion of the Logos.
From Christian Mysticism by Inge, William Ralph
This colony settled in what was subsequently called Phoenicia; and here again our traditions are confirmed ab extra, for Herodotus says: "The Phoenicians anciently dwelt, as they allege, on the borders of the Red Sea."
From An Illustrated History of Ireland from AD 400 to 1800 by Cusack, Mary Frances
In the early stages of all the colonies it is obviously inevitable that appointments ab extra to public office must occasionally, and even frequently, be made.
From Toronto of Old by Scadding, Henry
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.