abstract number
Americannoun
Etymology
Origin of abstract number
First recorded in 1550–60
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.
Studies show, for example, that people are more likely to help a single person than they are to take action to support a statistically large but abstract number of victims.
From Salon ● Apr. 17, 2025
Shortly before his death, he warned of a world where the individual “has lost his individuality and become a mere abstract number in the bureau of statistics.”
From Washington Post ● Nov. 27, 2021
Over the next millennium, algebra evolved from the study of the nature of solutions to polynomial equations to the study of abstract number systems.
From Scientific American ● Sep. 14, 2021
"This is not an abstract number of cases. We're seeing people pile into intensive care units."
From Fox News ● Jun. 15, 2020
The abstract number, five, I am willing to admit; but, concretely, it has reference to bottles of Brown Stout, without which, in the way of condiment, Welsh rabbit is to be eschewed.
From The Works of Edgar Allan Poe — Volume 5 by Poe, Edgar Allan
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.
