abstraction

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

|Updated on: 8 Jul 2018

Examples: abstraction in a Sentence

Editor's Note: Did You Know?

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

See abstraction defined for English-language learners

See abstraction defined for kids

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

Did these mathematical abstractions have no basis in reality?

— john timmer, Ars Technica, "Gravitational waves and the slow pace of scientific revolutions," 30 June 2018
Among the artists in this group exhibit who allude to landscapes and other natural subject matter, the acrylic paintings by Myung Sook Ryu Kim are sketchy to the point of borderline-abstraction.

— mike giuliano, Howard County Times, "From the studio to the gallery," 8 June 2018
Traces of hard-edge abstraction and minimalism, conceptual art, feminist art, identity politics, new media and even performance place Pindell in sync with her times, occasionally ahead of them.

— lori waxman, chicagotribune.com, "The diverse, dizzying majesty of Howardena Pindell," 25 Apr. 2018
Stuart Davis, for example, has long been seen as a bridge between French geometric abstraction and American pop.

— thomas hine, Philly.com, "Art Museum show gives American Modernists - and Philly ones - new respect," 12 Apr. 2018
This all-star trio unites three improvisers who are not only well versed in jazz’s standard practice, but also interested in thickened atmospheres and architectural abstraction.

— New York Times, "12 Pop, Rock and Jazz Concerts to Check Out in N.Y.C. This Weekend," 14 June 2018
After the second world war, Ms Fontanella notes, abstraction was widely viewed as the art of the future.

— The Economist, "How Alberto Giacometti became a legend," 14 June 2018
Western-style abstraction collided with Middle Eastern history.

— david pagel, latimes.com, "Asad Faulwell paints the tense landscape where Middle East meets America," 13 June 2018
His use of color was as well known among painters as his mercurial and erratic personality, and scholars, including Wolanin, increasingly see his late work as a major augury of abstraction expressionism.

— stephan salisbury, Philly.com, "Woodmere acquires vast trove of Arthur Carles' art," 5 June 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