abstraction

noun

ab·​strac·​tion ab-ˈstrak-shən 

əb-

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

abstractional

ab-ˈstrak-sh(ə-)nəl 

əb-

adjective

abstractive

ab-ˈstrak-tiv 

ˈab-ˌstrak-

adjective

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.

Synonyms

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

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 on the Web

The German historian Oswald Spengler considered our age the age of abstraction. —Scott Gilbertson, WIRED, 8 Apr. 2024

Stains are a big deal in Ruscha’s work of the late 1960s and early 1970s, a moment when warring factions in the art world were busy arguing over the prominence of abstraction in new art. —Christopher Knight, Los Angeles Times, 7 Apr. 2024

Most focused on power struggles with local Democrats and barely considered what their fellow citizens in the South might think, viewing that distant part of the country as a Slave Power abstraction. —Jon Grinspan, Smithsonian Magazine, 1 Apr. 2024

Robert Moskowitz, a painter who used the New York City skyline to stake out a unique position on the border of abstraction and representation, died on Sunday in Manhattan. —Will Heinrich, New York Times, 28 Mar. 2024

For Jim’s predecessors, freedom requires abstraction: the problem is other people. —Maya Binyam, The New Yorker, 11 Mar. 2024

Our model, like all models, is an abstraction—and thus imperfectly captures the complexity of actual interactions. —Scott Duke Kominers, The Atlantic, 22 Mar. 2024

Best-in-class systems rely on an abstraction layer to make all settings and data accessible. —Gerry Gebel, Forbes, 28 Feb. 2024

To wit: a dress of iridescent watery abstraction that contains its own in ebb and flow, displayed next to delicate pen and ink illustrations of an octopus by the 19th-century French naturalist Charles-Alexandre Lesueur. —Vanessa Friedman, New York Times, 23 Jan. 2024

Word History

Etymology

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 abstract entry 1

First Known Use

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Kids Definition

abstraction

noun

ab·​strac·​tion ab-ˈstrak-shən 

1

a

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

b

: an abstract idea or term

2

: an artistic composition or creation having designs that do not represent actual objects

abstractive

-ˈstrak-tiv 

adjective