abstract

¹ab·stract

adj \ab-ˈstrakt, ˈab-ˌ\

Definition of ABSTRACT

1

a : disassociated from any specific instance <an abstract entity> b : difficult to understand : abstruse <abstract problems> c : insufficiently factual : formal <possessed only an abstract right>

2

: expressing a quality apart from an object <the word poem is concrete, poetry is abstract>

3

a : dealing with a subject in its abstract aspects : theoretical <abstract science> b : impersonal, detached <the abstract compassion of a surgeon — Time>

4

: having only intrinsic form with little or no attempt at pictorial representation or narrative content <abstract painting>

— ab·stract·ly \ab-ˈstrak(t)-lē, ˈab-ˌ\ adverb

— ab·stract·ness \ab-ˈstrak(t)-nəs, ˈab-ˌ\ noun

Examples of ABSTRACT

1. abstract ideas such as love and hate
2. “Honesty” is an abstract word.
3. The word “poem” is concrete, the word “poetry” is abstract.
4. It is true that the atrocities that were known remained abstract and remote, rarely acquiring the status of knee-buckling knowledge among ordinary Americans. Because the savagery of genocide so defies our everyday experience, many of us failed to wrap our minds around it. —Samantha Power, New York Times Book Review, 14 Mar. 2002
5. A glance into the classrooms of the Los Angeles public school system … fleshes out the abstract debates with the faces of children. —Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs, and Steel, 1997
6. I take my photographs and print them on a laser copying machine in the “photo” mode; the resulting image is more stark and abstract than a traditional photographic print, which tends to dominate the page regardless of the text. —Leslie Marmon Silko, Yellow Woman and a Beauty of the Spirit, 1996

Origin of ABSTRACT

Medieval Latin abstractus, from Latin, past participle of abstrahere to drag away, from abs-, ab- + trahere to pull, draw

First Known Use: 14th century

Related to ABSTRACT

Synonyms: conceptual, ideal, ideational, metaphysical, notional, theoretical (also theoretic)

Antonyms: concrete, nonabstract

Related Words: conjectural, hypothetical, speculative; cosmic (also cosmical), intellectual, mental, spiritual; ethereal, immaterial, incorporeal, insubstantial, nonmaterial, nonphysical, unsubstantial; impalpable, imperceptible, insensible, intangible, invisible; impractical, romantic, transcendent, transcendental, unreal, utopian, visionary

Near Antonyms: material, physical; appreciable, detectable, discernible (also discernable), noticeable, observable, palpable, perceptible, sensible, substantial, tangible, visible; defined, definite, distinct; actual, factual, real

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Rhymes with ABSTRACT

attract, class act, compact, contact, contract, crookbacked, detract, didact, diffract, distract, enact, entr'acte, epact, exact, extract, humpbacked, hunchbacked, impact, infract, intact, mossbacked, playact, protract, react, redact, refract, retract, sex act, subtract, swaybacked, transact, unbacked