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abstract
[ adjective ab-strakt, ab-strakt; noun ab-strakt; verb ab-strakt ab-strakt ]
adjective
- thought of apart from concrete realities, specific objects, or actual instances:
an abstract idea.
- expressing a quality or characteristic apart from any specific object or instance, as justice, poverty, and speed.
- not applied or practical; theoretical:
abstract science.
- difficult to understand; abstruse:
abstract speculations.
- Fine Arts.
- 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.
- Often Abstract. pertaining to the nonrepresentational art styles of the 20th century.
noun
- a summary of a text, scientific article, document, speech, etc.; epitome.
- something that concentrates in itself the essential qualities of anything more extensive or more general, or of several things; essence.
- an idea or term considered apart from some material basis or object.
- an abstract work of art.
abstract
adjective
- having no reference to material objects or specific examples; not concrete
- not applied or practical; theoretical
- hard to understand; recondite; abstruse
- denoting art characterized by geometric, formalized, or otherwise nonrepresentational qualities
- defined in terms of its formal properties
an abstract machine
- 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
- a condensed version of a piece of writing, speech, etc; summary
- an abstract term or idea
- an abstract painting, sculpture, etc
- in the abstractwithout reference to specific circumstances or practical experience
verb
- to think of (a quality or concept) generally without reference to a specific example; regard theoretically
- to form (a general idea) by abstraction
- ˈæٰæ also intr to summarize or epitomize
- to remove or extract
- euphemistic.to steal
Other Word Forms
- ·ٰ· noun
- ·ٰ· adverb
- ·ٰ·Ա noun
- ԴDz··ٰ adjective noun
- non··ٰ· adverb
- non··ٰ·Ա noun
- ···ٰ verb (used with object) adjective
- ··ٰ adjective
- ···ٰ adjective
- su·per··ٰ· adverb
- su·per··ٰ·Ա noun
Word History and Origins
Word History and Origins
Origin of abstract1
Idioms and Phrases
- abstract away from, to omit from consideration.
- in the abstract, without reference to a specific object or instance; in theory:
beauty in the abstract.
Example Sentences
She creates large-scale swirling abstract drawings and sculpures made from colourful streams of repurposed fabrics and materials such as reels of VHS tape.
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.
It’s a reality that’s rich and complicated, because identity is not abstract.
The book’s title makes a droll pun for “lair,” a villainous place of danger or death, while his vivid, mostly monochrome abstract photographs of poisoned atmosphere wittily recall fashionable Color Field paintings.
Mitchell, who would've been 100 this year, was one of the most celebrated artists of the abstract expressionist movement.
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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.
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