abstract

[ab-strakt, ab-strakt, ab-strakt, ab-strakt, ab-strakt]

adjective

1. thought of apart from concrete realities, specific objects, or actual instances.

   an abstract idea.

2. expressing a quality or characteristic apart from any specific object or instance, as justice, poverty, and speed.

3. not applied or practical; theoretical.

   abstract science.

4. difficult to understand; abstruse.

   abstract speculations.

5. Fine Arts.

   1. of or relating to the formal aspect of art, emphasizing lines, colors, generalized or geometrical forms, etc., especially with reference to their relationship to one another.

   2. Often Abstract pertaining to the nonrepresentational art styles of the 20th century.

noun

1. a summary of a text, scientific article, document, speech, etc.; epitome.

2. something that concentrates in itself the essential qualities of anything more extensive or more general, or of several things; essence.

3. an idea or term considered apart from some material basis or object.

4. an abstract work of art.

verb (used with object)

1. to make an abstract of; summarize.

2. to draw or take away; remove.

3. to divert or draw away the attention of.

4. to steal.

5. to consider as a general quality or characteristic apart from specific objects or instances.

   to abstract the notions of time, space, and matter.

abstract

adjective

1. having no reference to material objects or specific examples; not concrete

2. not applied or practical; theoretical

3. hard to understand; recondite; abstruse

4. denoting art characterized by geometric, formalized, or otherwise nonrepresentational qualities

5. defined in terms of its formal properties

   an abstract machine

6. philosophy (of an idea) functioning for some empiricists as the meaning of a general term

   the word ``man'' does not name all men but the abstract idea of manhood

noun

1. a condensed version of a piece of writing, speech, etc; summary

2. an abstract term or idea

3. an abstract painting, sculpture, etc

4. without reference to specific circumstances or practical experience

verb

1. to think of (a quality or concept) generally without reference to a specific example; regard theoretically

2. to form (a general idea) by abstraction

3. (also intr) to summarize or epitomize

4. to remove or extract

5. euphemistic,  to steal

Other Word Forms

• abstracter noun
• abstractly adverb
• abstractness noun
• nonabstract adjective
• nonabstractly adverb
• nonabstractness noun
• overabstract verb (used with object)
• preabstract adjective
• superabstract adjective
• superabstractly adverb
• superabstractness noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of abstract¹

First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English: “withdrawn from worldly interests,” from Latin abstractus “drawn off” (past participle of abstrahere ). See abs-, tract ¹

Word History and Origins

Origin of abstract¹

C14: (in the sense: extracted): from Latin abstractus drawn off, removed from (something specific), from abs- _ab- ¹ + trahere to draw

Idioms and Phrases

Idioms

1. abstract away from, to omit from consideration.

2. in the abstract, without reference to a specific object or instance; in theory.

   beauty in the abstract.

Example Sentences

Regular, beat-up people know all this in the particular, the wealthy and successful only in the abstract.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Rosner’s imagery is abstract and often looks like the computer graphics you might choose for a screen saver, but better, brilliantly colored and alive.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

The bottle is the trap philosophers inadvertently create for themselves by abstracting concepts such as “knowledge,” “being” and “object” from their ordinary usage and analyzing them as though each has some kind of independent essence.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

An attack against Germany was an "unlikely and abstract scenario" that the government was using to legitimise "stealing millions of young people's right to decide what they should be doing", he said.

Read more on BBC

Her art, once abstract, started giving way to bold geometry.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• abstruse 
• hypothetical 
• philosophical 
• unreal