abstractions

plural of abstraction

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of abstractions Preliterate people don’t focus on such abstractions as taking a periodic population census and recording it for posterity. — James Coffin, The Orlando Sentinel, 8 Oct. 2026 One of Lichtenstein’s takes on Monet in this show features the cathedral buried beneath a matrix of black dots set atop a deep blue background, in what may count as an allusion to Ad Reinhardt’s blue-on-blue abstractions of the ’50s. — Alex Greenberger, ARTnews.com, 7 Oct. 2026 For much of the post-9/11 era, Muslims appeared in American culture as abstractions. — Ayman M. Mohyeldin, Vanity Fair, 11 Sep. 2026 These numbers are not abstractions, and trust may be the nonprofit sector’s most valuable currency. — Brian Peckrill, Forbes.com, 10 Sep. 2026 The film is downright Tarkovskian for its initial hour, unspooling through eerie abstractions that heighten its lingering domestic turmoil. — Siddhant Adlakha, Variety, 2 Sep. 2026 Certain practical and loving people viewed abstractions as attempts to escape, and thus a way of failing at what was essential in life. — Literary Hub, 19 Aug. 2026 Billy’s main creative outlet in her years of solitude has been visual art, and her work—abstractions dominated by the geometric forms of Little Death’s air-vent face—seems like a closed circuit of self-therapy. — Richard Brody, New Yorker, 31 July 2026 Yet American students and scholars flocked in droves to theory, perceiving in its recondite abstractions a thrilling new way of understanding the world—even, some believed, of changing it. — Emily Eakin, Harpers Magazine, 28 July 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for abstractions
Noun
  • Mesh, lace, metallic studs, crochet and tie-dye competed for attention, while fitted party dresses and washed denim leaned heavily on familiar notions of off-duty rock-chick dressing.
    — Rhonda Richford, Footwear News, 9 Oct. 2026
  • Credibility is affected deeply by strategic cultural assessments about superiority and inferiority, and notions about when, where, how and for whom the credibility matters.
    — Christopher Nichols, The Conversation, 9 Oct. 2026
Noun
  • When teams stay genuinely curious and learn to challenge ideas without challenging people, disagreement becomes a tool for better thinking and can actually strengthen trust.
    — Expert Panel®, Forbes.com, 16 Oct. 2026
  • Santoyo supports meeting regularly with students and the community to exchange ideas and concerns.
    — Sophia Veneziano, San Antonio Express-News, 16 Oct. 2026
Noun
  • No accident that the likes of Lisa Yuskavage, Sasha Gordon, and Mulligan are regularly invoked in accounts of cringe-adjacent concepts like abjection, disturbance, disquiet.
    — Eugenie Brinkema, ARTnews.com, 17 Oct. 2026
  • Last year, Royal Palm underwent a $100 million renovation by new owner Park Hotels and Resorts, updating all guest rooms, adding new dining concepts, and restoring key architectural features.
    — Condé Nast, Condé Nast Traveler, 17 Oct. 2026
Noun
  • This is the ability to reframe thoughts and physical signs that could be interpreted as anxiety in a less threatening way.
    — Maia Szalavitz, Scientific American, 20 Oct. 2026
  • This is music pulled clingwrap-tight, close to tearing, around dozens of little thoughts.
    — Alex Robert Ross, Pitchfork, 20 Oct. 2026
Noun
  • Many young adults who started families in the past twenty years were raised this way, which shaped their own conceptions of how to rear children.
    — Margaret Talbot, New Yorker, 21 Sep. 2026
  • Whether destruction or technological progress, both are purposeful activities, each with different conceptions of success or failure.
    — Brian Boucher, ARTnews.com, 17 Sep. 2026
Noun
  • Al Hassan remembers showing a group of visitors TAMM’s feature for taking pictures and reporting potholes.
    — Inzamam Rashid, Fortune, 14 Oct. 2026
  • The men appear to have developed a close relationship and often share pictures together on their socials, including posing together at the 2021 Los Angeles premiere of the Peter Jackson’s Beatles miniseries Get Back (see above).
    — Gil Kaufman, Billboard, 13 Oct. 2026
Noun
  • Critics claim that members are either uninterested in doing their job or more focused on showboating and gaining social media impressions than legislating.
    — Scott Warren, Washington Post, 9 Oct. 2026
  • Elsewhere, Basquiat printed the same screen twice, moving it only a few millimeters between impressions.
    — Daniel Cassady, ARTnews.com, 7 Oct. 2026

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Cite this Entry

“Abstractions.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/abstractions. Accessed 20 Oct. 2026.

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