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

See Examples For:

ab extra

"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

Those who are so fortunate as to occupy the philosophical position of spectators ab extra are very few in any generation.

From Among My Books First Series by James Russell Lowell

This Life is not something added ab extra to the natural man; it is the normal and appropriate development of the natural man.

From Natural Law in the Spiritual World by Henry Drummond

Ecclesiastical figures abound in his pages, jolly friars, holy hermits, lordly prelates, grim inquisitors, abbots, priors, and priests of all descriptions, but all somewhat conventional and viewed ab extra.

From A History of English Romanticism in the Nineteenth Century by Henry A. (Henry Augustin) Beers

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 Mary Frances Cusack