abstraction
an abstract or general idea or term.
the act of considering something as a general quality or characteristic, apart from concrete realities, specific objects, or actual instances.
an impractical idea; something visionary and unrealistic.
the act of taking away or separating; withdrawal: The sensation of cold is due to the abstraction of heat from our bodies.
secret removal, especially theft.
absent-mindedness; inattention; mental absorption.
Fine Arts.
the abstract qualities or characteristics of a work of art.
a work of art, especially a nonrepresentational one, stressing formal relationships.
Origin of abstraction
1Other words from abstraction
- ab·strac·tion·al, adjective
Words Nearby abstraction
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use abstraction in a sentence
Flattening the curve became an abstraction with no real meaning.
A thoughtful return to contextual advertising means that the industry will need to consider the whole person, rather than a collection of abstractions.
In other words, their understanding doesn’t rely on the kind of abstraction of the world that text provides.
This could lead to the next big breakthrough in common sense AI | Karen Hao | November 6, 2020 | MIT Technology ReviewThis is a great book if you are looking for something with a little bit of abstraction and a lot of access to animals you won’t find out and about.
Animal coffee table books that make great gifts and conversation fodder | PopSci Commerce Team | October 1, 2020 | Popular-ScienceIt suggests the model is actually capable of a certain level of abstraction, a fundamental skill for understanding the world.
These weird, unsettling photos show that AI is getting smarter | Karen Hao | September 25, 2020 | MIT Technology Review
It frustrated her to hear other students discussing death as an abstraction, subject to simple moral rules.
The Nurse Coaching People Through Death by Starvation | Nick Tabor | November 17, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTIt is this kind of abstraction that leads to more mythology, more heroic narratives, more undertones of patriotic martyrdom.
War Is About More Than Heroes, Martyrs, and Patriots | Nathan Bradley Bethea | November 12, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTIn the many portraits, Picasso oscillates between naturalism and abstraction in his portraits of Jacqueline.
Democrats have to stop allowing Republicans to define the election as an up or down vote on an abstraction called Obamacare.
Only someone already painfully unable to deal with abstraction would draw such a suicidal conclusion.
Richard Hofstadter and America’s New Wave of Anti-Intellectualism | David Masciotra | March 9, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTAnemia in these cases is probably due both to toxins and to abstraction of blood.
A Manual of Clinical Diagnosis | James Campbell ToddRecovering from his fit of abstraction, Pyne, casting a final keen glance at the sleeper, walked out of the room.
Dope | Sax RohmerNever affect a foolish reserve in a mixed company, keeping aloof from others as if in a state of mental abstraction.
The Ladies' Book of Etiquette, and Manual of Politeness | Florence HartleyIn their abstraction they had taken the long way home, instead of cutting directly across the ranch in the direction of the house.
The Outdoor Girls in the Saddle | Laura Lee HopeBut in this abstraction from all outward things, his worldly affairs went ever lower down.
Ruth | Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
British Dictionary definitions for abstraction
/ (æbˈstrækʃən) /
absence of mind; preoccupation
the process of formulating generalized ideas or concepts by extracting common qualities from specific examples
an idea or concept formulated in this way: good and evil are abstractions
logic an operator that forms a class name or predicate from any given expression: See also lambda calculus
an abstract painting, sculpture, etc
the act of withdrawing or removing
Derived forms of abstraction
- abstractive, adjective
- abstractively, adverb
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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