abstract
- noun
- /ˈæbstrækt/
- We need to turn our souls, as it were, towards the abstract, the true, and the rational.
- abstract and the concrete
I was a film and philosophy double major in the abstract at Tish.
- I was a film and philosophy double major in the abstract at Tish.
Examples
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If they cannot know truth in the abstract, they do have the power to know truths about themselves.
Academic text (1999) -
The narrator ends the story in a dilemma that, in the abstract, is about power, submission, and love.
Academic text (1999) -
Not money in the abstract, but money in the wrong places.
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So all of the abstract problems that people make for themselves.
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So it's in one sense an abstract idea, a pie in the sky idea.
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I was speaking in the abstract, not about anything realistic.
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A minimally decent measure of individual freedom cannot be specified in the abstract.
Academic text (1999) -
The concept of freedom is often discussed in the abstract, making it challenging to apply to specific situations.
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In her thesis, she included an abstract that summarized her main arguments and findings.
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Understanding the theory is easy, but putting it into practice requires moving beyond the abstract.
Synonyms
An idea you get after seeing many examples, like freedom
Making a simple idea from many details to show what is common
An idea that exists only in thought, not as a physical thing
Antonyms
Compounds
- Specialized
A style of painting from 1940s New York using large, free, abstract shapes and emotional brush strokes
- Slang
Unclear, complicated ideas that are hard to understand and not practical
How Abstract
Surface Forms
Etymology
Abstract comes from Latin parts ab- 'away' and tract 'draw', the same root as tractor. It originally meant 'drawn away' from physical things, so an abstract is an idea that exists only in thought, not as a concrete object.