abstraction

noun ab·strac·tion \ ab-ˈstrak-shən , əb- \

Updated on: 13 May 2018

Definition of abstraction

1 a : the act or process of abstracting : the state of being abstracted

b : an abstract idea or term

2 : absence of mind or preoccupation

3 : abstract quality or character

4 a : an abstract composition or creation in art

b : abstractionism

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abstractional

play \-shnəl, -shə-nᵊl\ adjective

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abstractive

play \ab-ˈstrak-tiv, ˈab-ˌ\ adjective

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Examples of abstraction in a Sentence

abstraction of data from hospital records
“Beauty” and “truth” are abstractions.
She gazed out the window in abstraction.

Recent Examples of abstraction from the Web

Also on view are Kusama's ravishing early abstractions on paper from the 1950s and '60s, characterized by deeply nuanced textures and abstract forms.

— steven litt, cleveland.com, "Kusama 'Infinity Mirrors' show in Toronto offers preview of what's coming to Cleveland (photos)," 6 May 2018
Almost all of the artists in this exhibit create representational watercolors, but many also rely upon some degree of abstraction.

— mike giuliano, Howard County Times, "Watercolor Society's splashes of convention, abstraction," 27 Apr. 2018
But in this context, with this level of coherence, Remy is more than an abstraction.

— nathaniel friedman, GQ, "U.S. Girls Isn’t Selling Out—She’s Just Writing Bops," 26 Apr. 2018
Goncharova’s efforts in Rayonism and Futurism influenced her Russian contemporaries and were crucial in guiding future abstraction.

— National Geographic, "Beyond Picasso: 6 Female Artists Who Turned Modern Art On Its Head," 19 Apr. 2018
Though scholars have studied his works through the lens of history or as harbingers of 20th-century abstraction, a fresh approach to Monet’s exceedingly familiar painting has become a rare phenomenon.

— mary tompkins lewis, WSJ, "‘Monet & Architecture’ Review: Watching a Painter Build His Career," 7 Apr. 2018
At Van Doren Waxter, Jackie Saccoccio’s latest abstractions effervesce more than ever with dots and carefully directed drips, suggesting windows onto worlds of atomized color.

— roberta smith, New York Times, "ADAA: A Fair to Remember Starts a Month of Art Show Madness," 1 Mar. 2018
Something, anything, to keep your reader from the truth: that your subject is an abstraction-spouting workaholic with a huge team of people who have drawn, rendered, detailed, supervised, constructed the work in question.

— alexandra lange, Curbed, "The end of the architect profile," 19 Apr. 2018
The four murals are within blocks of each other and highlight contemporary artists in various stages of their careers, yet each one favors color, pattern and abstraction over a figurative narrative.

— ryan patrick hooper, Detroit Free Press, "Massive, colorful mural will soon grace downtown Detroit's skyline," 5 Apr. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'abstraction.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Did You Know?

From its roots, abstraction should mean basically "something pulled or drawn away". So abstract art is art that has moved away from painting objects of the ordinary physical world in order to show something beyond it. Theories are often abstractions; so a theory about economics, for instance, may "pull back" to take a broad view that somehow explains all of economics (but maybe doesn't end up explaining any of it very successfully). An abstract of a medical or scientific article is a one-paragraph summary of its contents—that is, the basic findings "pulled out" of the article.

Origin and Etymology of abstraction

borrowed from Middle French & Late Latin; Middle French, "abduction (of a woman), removal, extraction (of a foreign body from a wound), (in philosophy) process by which the mind is able to form universal representations of the properties of distinct objects," borrowed from Late Latin abstractiōn-, abstractiō, from Latin abstrac- (variant stem of abstrahere "to remove forcibly") + -tiōn-, -tiō, suffix of action nouns — more at ¹abstract

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: 15th century

in the meaning defined at sense 1a

See Words from the same year

abstraction Synonyms

Synonyms

cogitation, concept, conception, idea, image, impression, intellection, mind's eye, notion, picture, thought;

Near Antonyms

actuality, fact, reality;

preconception, prejudice, prepossession;

delusion, hallucination, illusion, phantasm (also fantasm);

caprice, conceit, fancy, vagary, whim;

cognition, observation, perception, reflection;

assumption, belief, conclusion, conviction;

conjecture, guess, hunch, hypothesis, speculation, supposition, surmise, theory;

brainchild, brainstorm, brain wave, inspiration;

ABSTRACTION Defined for English Language Learners

abstraction

noun

Definition of abstraction for English Language Learners

: the act of obtaining or removing something from a source : the act of abstracting something
: a general idea or quality rather than an actual person, object, or event : an abstract idea or quality
: the state of someone who is not paying attention to what is happening or being said : an abstracted state