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

"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

Contrary to universal experience elsewhere, elephants in Burmah breed in captivity, but this union was unfertile and the race of "Lord White Elephants" had to be maintained ab extra.

From Camps, Quarters, and Casual Places by Forbes, Archibald

I doubted if he was the better judge for this—observing only ab extra, and without being in sympathy with her feelings as moved by the tale.

From Adela Cathcart, Volume 1 by MacDonald, George

Discoursing upon the hypothesis of "a fortuitous concourse of atoms" Dr. Priestley asks, "what reason we have to think that small masses of matter can have power without communication ab extra?"

From Answer to Dr. Priestley's Letters to a Philosophical Unbeliever by Turner, Matthew

But the germination of every seed depends on conditions ab extra, and all germs are modified, in their development, by geographical and climatal surroundings.

From Christianity and Greek Philosophy or, the relation between spontaneous and reflective thought in Greece and the positive teaching of Christ and His Apostles by Cocker, B. F. (Benjamin Franklin)