adjective
-
lost in thought; preoccupied
-
taken out or separated; extracted
Related Words
See absent-minded.
Other Word Forms
- abstractedly adverb
- abstractedness noun
- nonabstracted adjective
- nonabstractedly adverb
- nonabstractedness noun
- unabstracted adjective
- unabstractedly adverb
- unabstractedness noun
Etymology
Origin of abstracted
Explanation
If you're abstracted, you're preoccupied with thoughts other than what's going on around you. An abstracted person on the bus might forget to get off at her stop. When your abstracted friend doesn't answer your repeated questions, it's not just because he's not listening — his mind is absorbed by heavy thoughts or worries that make him inattentive. Being distracted is similar, but abstracted implies that it's something inside you that's pulling your attention away, rather than a TV screen, the smell of nachos, or the sound of laughter. Abstracted is from the Latin root abstractus, "drawn away."
Vocabulary lists containing abstracted
"The Minister's Black Veil," Vocabulary from the short story
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Absent
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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.
One might have expected some gesture toward its origins, rather than its cool and highly abstracted references to Harlem.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 17, 2025
Think of it as theater as a healing exercise, or simply an abstracted evening with elaborate, vibrant costumes and choreographed drones creating new constellations in the sky.
From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 11, 2025
The show is purposefully abstracted, says Hull, to allow audience members to attach their own narratives.
From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 11, 2025
He added that the exemption that allows farmers to take up to 20,000 litres a day without a licence meant no-one could be sure how much water was being abstracted by farms across England.
From BBC • Jul. 15, 2025
If he left the room for a minute she'd look around uneasily and say "Where's Tom gone?" and wear the most abstracted expression until she saw him coming in the door.
From " The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald
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.
