Recent Examples on the Web
Bows also showed up in abstract or aggressive forms—or performed unlikely tricks—in recent collections from Rodarte, Khaite and Batsheva.
—
Kristen Bateman, WSJ, 31 Mar. 2023
Thanks to everyone who came from near far wide abstract and online.
—Anna Myers, Peoplemag, 30 Mar. 2023
Read full article Carew is primarily a painter but also works in sculpture, installation, and printmaking to create abstract and vibrant pieces with spiritual undertones.
—Abigail Lee, BostonGlobe.com, 29 Mar. 2023
Instead, the metallic gold-on-white print is abstract enough to be modern but organic enough to maintain a girly feel.
—Caitlin Sole, Better Homes & Gardens, 27 Mar. 2023
The possibility of a DeSantis run was very abstract last year at this time.
—Laura Jedeed, The New Republic, 4 Mar. 2023
Claflin took cues from Bruce Springsteen and Lindsey Buckingham for his on-stage swagger, while Keough’s inspiration was much more abstract.
—Ellise Shafer, Variety, 3 Mar. 2023
Conversations by policy experts and advocates about the caregiving crisis can be too abstract, and any meaningful structural and cultural change must acknowledge the tensions, human toll, material consequences, complexities and nuances about care from the people who provide and rely on it.
—Alice Wong, CNN, 22 Feb. 2023
Words are concrete, while music is abstract.
—Bethanne Patrick, Los Angeles Times, 20 Feb. 2023
The acquisitions include ancient American artwork, abstracts and black-and-white photography.
—Matthew J. Palm, Orlando Sentinel, 31 Mar. 2023
Still, Hallström mostly strikes a nice balance between approachability and mystique, between the definitive and the abstract, getting a huge amount of help from his daughter Tora’s open and warm performance in her first leading role.
—Tomris Laffly, Variety, 30 Mar. 2023
The study’s abstract defines its findings in explicitly racial terms.
—Alexander Hall, Fox News, 10 Mar. 2023
Microsoft, for instance, is developing a system for researchers called BioGPT that will focus on clinical research, not consumer health care, and it’s trained on 15 million abstracts from studies.
—Karen Weintraub, USA TODAY, 27 Feb. 2023
Hicks Pries is pleased the abstracts will be put back, but challenges AGU’s characterization of the scientists’ actions.
—Bywarren Cornwall, science.org, 23 Feb. 2023
Since its release, the tool has been used to write articles for at least one news publication, drafted research paper abstracts that fooled some scientists and even passed graduate-level law and business exams (albeit with low marks).
—Jessie Yeung, CNN, 23 Feb. 2023
Researchers in Poland bioprinted a functional prototype of a pancreas in which stable blood flow was achieved in pigs during an observed two-week period, according to a 2022 abstract and Dr. Michal Wszola, creator of Bionic Pancreas.
—Carolyn Barber, Fortune Well, 15 Feb. 2023
What if a user asks an AI tool to summarize their paper in a snappy abstract?
—James Vincent, The Verge, 5 Jan. 2023
But so many of us still have the luxury, with our clean air and water, our safety, our lack of proximity, of abstracting disaster into polemic instead.
—Sarah Stankorb, The New Republic, 1 Mar. 2023
For the astronomers working on the Carte du Ciel, no model yet existed that could abstract the positions of millions of stars into a theory of how our galaxy evolved; the researchers instead only had an intuition that photographic techniques could be useful to map the world.
—H.j. Mccracken, Ars Technica, 13 Sep. 2022
So to abstract the nose is to erase all possible recognition of a character as someone related or familiar to the viewer and instead creates the possibility that this character could be anyone, that what is happening to the character could happen to anyone. .
—Ian Parker, The New Yorker, 22 Feb. 2021
That means adopting tools and technologies that abstract away underlying cryptographic primitives and that can change readily.
—Patrick Walsh, Forbes, 11 Nov. 2022
Many of Saunders’s bags, in tomato red and Yves Klein blue, come with malleable wire framing so that the wearer can abstract the classic square shape into something more surreal.
—Steff Yotka, Vogue, 22 July 2022
From there, determine the context analytics must abstract for each of those sub-domains.
—Amandeep Midha, Forbes, 19 May 2022
Cloud platforms continually move up the infrastructure stack to simplify and abstract extraordinarily complex concepts like pub-sub, container orchestration, queueing and more.
—Jack Naglieri, Forbes, 15 Sep. 2021
In order to transform this pain point into a competitive advantage in 2022, businesses will seek new tools such as API gateways and microservices management tools that abstract away complexity and align with existing IT and DevOps processes.
—Augusto Marietti, Forbes, 27 Jan. 2022
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These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word ‘abstract.’ Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Britannica Dictionary definition of ABSTRACT
[more abstract; most abstract]
1
:
relating to or involving general ideas or qualities rather than specific people, objects, or actions
-
abstract thinking
-
abstract ideas/concepts such as love and hate
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“Honesty” is an abstract word.
-
The word “poem” is concrete, the word “poetry” is abstract.
—
opposite 2concrete 2
2
of art
:
expressing ideas and emotions by using elements such as colors and lines without attempting to create a realistic picture
-
abstract art
-
an abstract painting/painter
— abstractly
/æbˈstræktli/
adverb
-
a child learning to think abstractly
— abstractness
/æbˈstræktnəs/
noun
[noncount]
Britannica Dictionary definition of ABSTRACT
[count]
1
:
a brief written statement of the main points or facts in a longer report, speech, etc.
:
summary
2
:
an abstract work of art (such as a painting)
-
an artist admired for his abstracts
in the abstract
:
without referring to a specific person, object, or event
:
in a general way
-
thinking about freedom in the abstract
Britannica Dictionary definition of ABSTRACT
[+ object]
1
:
to make a summary of the main parts of (a report, speech, etc.)
:
to make an abstract of (something)
-
abstract [=summarize] an academic paper
2
:
to obtain or remove (something) from a source
-
Data for the study was abstracted from hospital records.
3
chiefly British, humorous
:
to steal (something)
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She accused him of abstracting [=pinching] some money from her purse.
Other forms: abstracted; abstracts; abstracting
Use the adjective abstract for something that is not a material object or is general and not based on specific examples.
Abstract is from a Latin word meaning «pulled away, detached,» and the basic idea is of something detached from physical, or concrete, reality. It is frequently used of ideas, meaning that they don’t have a clear applicability to real life, and of art, meaning that it doesn’t pictorially represent reality. It is also used as a noun, especially in the phrase «in the abstract» (a joke has a person laying down a new sidewalk saying «I like little boys in the abstract, but not in the concrete»), and as a verb (accented on the second syllable), meaning «to remove.»
Definitions of abstract
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adjective
existing only in the mind; separated from embodiment
“abstract words like `truth’ and `justice’”
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Synonyms:
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conceptional, ideational, notional
being of the nature of a notion or concept
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conceptual
being or characterized by concepts or their formation
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ideal
constituting or existing only in the form of an idea or mental image or conception
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ideologic, ideological
concerned with or suggestive of ideas
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nonrepresentational
of or relating to a style of art in which objects do not resemble those known in physical nature
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impalpable, intangible
incapable of being perceived by the senses especially the sense of touch
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conceptional, ideational, notional
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adjective
not representing or imitating external reality or the objects of nature
“a large
abstract painting”-
synonyms:
abstractionist, nonfigurative, nonobjective
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nonrepresentational
of or relating to a style of art in which objects do not resemble those known in physical nature
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nonrepresentational
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adjective
dealing with a subject in the abstract without practical purpose or intention
“abstract reasoning”
“abstract science”
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Synonyms:
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theoretical
concerned with theories rather than their practical applications
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theoretical
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noun
a concept or idea not associated with any specific instance
“he loved her only in the
abstract—not in person”-
synonyms:
abstraction
see moresee less-
types:
- show 24 types…
- hide 24 types…
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right
an abstract idea of that which is due to a person or governmental body by law or tradition or nature
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absolute
something that is conceived or that exists independently and not in relation to other things; something that does not depend on anything else and is beyond human control; something that is not relative
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teacher
a personified abstraction that teaches
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thing
a special abstraction
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access
the right to obtain or make use of or take advantage of something (as services or membership)
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advowson
the right in English law of presenting a nominee to a vacant ecclesiastical benefice
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cabotage
the exclusive right of a country to control the air traffic within its borders
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claim, title
an informal right to something
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due
that which is deserved or owed
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access, accession, admission, admittance, entree
the right to enter
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floor
the parliamentary right to address an assembly
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grant
a right or privilege that has been granted
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human right
(law) any basic right or freedom to which all human beings are entitled and in whose exercise a government may not interfere (including rights to life and liberty as well as freedom of thought and expression and equality before the law)
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legal right
a right based in law
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pre-emption, preemption
the right to purchase something in advance of others
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exclusive right, perquisite, prerogative, privilege
a right reserved exclusively by a particular person or group (especially a hereditary or official right)
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privilege
(law) the right to refuse to divulge information obtained in a confidential relationship
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representation
the right of being represented by delegates who have a voice in some legislative body
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right of action
the legal right to sue
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right of search
the right of a belligerent to stop neutral ships on the high seas in wartime and search them
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right of way
the right of one vehicle or vessel to take precedence over another
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states’ rights
the rights conceded to the states by the United States constitution
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voting right
the right to vote; especially the right of a common shareholder to vote in person or by proxy on the affairs of a company
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riparian right, water right
right of access to water
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type of:
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concept, conception, construct
an abstract or general idea inferred or derived from specific instances
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noun
a sketchy summary of the main points of an argument or theory
-
synonyms:
outline, precis, synopsis
see moresee less-
types:
-
brief
a condensed written summary or abstract
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apercu
a short synopsis
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epitome
a brief abstract (as of an article or book)
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type of:
-
sum-up, summary
a brief statement that presents the main points in a concise form
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brief
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verb
give an abstract (of)
Definitions of abstract
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verb
consider a concept without thinking of a specific example; consider abstractly or theoretically
-
verb
consider apart from a particular case or instance
“Let’s
abstract away from this particular example” -
verb
make off with belongings of others
-
synonyms:
cabbage, filch, hook, lift, nobble, pilfer, pinch, purloin, snarf, sneak, swipe
DISCLAIMER: These example sentences appear in various news sources and books to reflect the usage of the word ‘abstract’.
Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Vocabulary.com or its editors.
Send us feedback
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Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Considered apart from concrete existence.
- adjective Not applied or practical; theoretical.
- adjective Difficult to understand; abstruse.
- adjective Denoting something that is immaterial, conceptual, or nonspecific, as an idea or quality.
- adjective Impersonal, as in attitude or views.
- adjective Having an intellectual and affective artistic content that depends solely on intrinsic form rather than on narrative content or pictorial representation.
- noun A statement summarizing the important points of a text.
- noun Something abstract.
- noun An abstract of title.
- transitive verb To take away; remove.
- transitive verb To remove without permission; steal.
- transitive verb To consider (an idea, for example) as separate from particular examples or objects.
- transitive verb To write a summary of; summarize.
- transitive verb To create artistic abstractions of (something else, such as a concrete object or another style).
- idiom (in the abstract) In a way that is conceptual or theoretical, as opposed to actual or empirical.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To draw away; take away; withdraw or remove, whether to hold or to get rid of the object withdrawn: as, to abstract one’s attention; to abstract a watch from a person’s pocket, or money from a bank.
- To consider as a form apart from matter; attend to as a general object, to the neglect of special circumstances; derive as a general idea from the contemplation of particular instances; separate and hold in thought, as a part of a complex idea, while letting the rest go.
- To derive or obtain the idea of.
- To select or separate the substance of, as a book or writing; epitomize or reduce to a summary.
- To extract: as, to abstract spirit.
- To form abstractions; separate ideas; distinguish between the attribute and the subject in which it exists: as, “brutes abstract not,” Locke.
- [This is all founded on a false notion of the origin of the term. See above.]
- Conceived apart from matter and from special cases: as, an abstract number, a number as conceived in arithmetic, not a number of things of any kind.
- In grammar (since the thirteenth century), applied specially to that class of nouns which are formed from adjectives and denote character, as goodness, audacity, and more generally to all nouns that do not name concrete things.
- Having the mind drawn away from present objects, as in ecstasy and trance; abstracted: as, “abstract as in a trance,”
- Produced by the mental process of abstraction: as, an abstract idea.
- Demanding a high degree of mental abstraction; difficult; profound; abstruse: as, highly abstract conceptions; very abstract speculations.
- Applied to a science which deals with its object in the abstract: as, abstract logic; abstract mathematics: opposed to applied logic and mathematics.
- Separated from material elements; ethereal; ideal.
- noun That which concentrates in itself the essential qualities of anything more extensive or more general, or of several things; the essence; specifically, a summary or epitome containing the substance, a general view, or the principal heads of a writing, discourse, series of events, or the like.
- noun That portion of a bill of quantities, an estimate, or an account which contains the summary of the various detailed articles.
- noun In pharmacy, a dry powder prepared from a drug by digesting it with suitable solvents, and evaporating the solution so obtained to complete dryness at a low temperature (122° F.).
- noun A catalogue; an inventory.
- noun In grammar, an abstract term or noun.
- noun conceived apart from matter or special circumstances; without reference to particular applications; in its general principles or meanings.
- noun Synonyms Abridgment, Compendium, Epitome, Abstract, etc. See abridgment.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb To withdraw; to separate; to take away.
- transitive verb To draw off in respect to interest or attention.
- transitive verb To separate, as ideas, by the operation of the mind; to consider by itself; to contemplate separately, as a quality or attribute.
- transitive verb To epitomize; to abridge.
- transitive verb To take secretly or dishonestly; to purloin.
- transitive verb (Chem.) To separate, as the more volatile or soluble parts of a substance, by distillation or other chemical processes. In this sense extract is now more generally used.
- adjective obsolete Withdraw; separate.
- adjective Considered apart from any application to a particular object; separated from matter; existing in the mind only. Hence: ideal; abstruse; difficult.
- adjective Expressing a particular property of an object viewed apart from the other properties which constitute it; — opposed to concrete.
- adjective Resulting from the mental faculty of abstraction; general as opposed to particular.
- adjective Abstracted; absent in mind.
- adjective (Metaph.) an idea separated from a complex object, or from other ideas which naturally accompany it; as the solidity of marble when contemplated apart from its color or figure.
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
[Middle English, from Latin abstractus, past participle of abstrahere, to draw away : abs-, ab-, away; see ab– + trahere, to draw.]
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
From Middle English, from Latin abstractus, perfect passive participle of abstrahō («draw away»), formed from abs- («away») + trahō («to pull, draw»).
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
First attested in 1542. Partly from English abstract (adjective form), and from Latin abstrat past participle of abstrahō («to draw away»).
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Examples
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The term abstract comes from the Latin word abstractus, which literally means «drawn away».
Recently Uploaded Slideshows
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Taking fifteen minutes to review your title abstract and history as well as the plat or a survey of the parcel and then walk the property to verify the information.
Yahoo! News: Business — Opinion
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The use of the word abstract is not used in a literal manner for example geometric shapes or blocks of colour.
The Guardian World News
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Now the Indian language, although quite sufficient for Indian wants, is poor, and has not the same copiousness as ours, because they do not require the words to explain what we term abstract ideas.
The Settlers in Canada
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Now, the Indian language, although quite sufficient for Indian wants, is poor, and has not the same copiousness as ours, because they do not require the words to explain what we term abstract ideas.
The Settlers in Canada
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Company’s consumer, commercial and other lending businesses; current and future capital management programs; non-interest income levels, including fees from the title abstract subsidiary and banking services as well as product sales; tangible capital generation; market share; expense levels; and other business operations and strategies.
News
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Bernard, nothing more than the abstract is available on the net for free.
Social Security Privatization, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty
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The journal’s web site hasn’t been updated to the current issue, so not even the abstract is available at the moment.
You Didn’t Think You Could Win, Did You?
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From these metaphysics, which are mingled with the Scripture to make School divinity, we are told there be in the world certain essences separated from bodies, which they call abstract essences, and substantial forms; for the interpreting of which jargon, there is need of somewhat more than ordinary attention in this place.
Leviathan
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Compassion in the abstract is all well and good — every sperm is sacred, every child must be born, every life must be saved (well, as long as they have a good lawyer, and that doesn’t include the death penalty).
March 2005
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abstraction | abstract | In context|computing|lang=en terms the difference between abstraction and abstractis that abstraction is (computing) any intellectual construct produced through the technique of abstraction while abstract is (computing) of a class in object-oriented programming, being a partial basis for subclasses rather than a complete template for objects. As nouns the difference between abstraction and abstractis that abstraction is the act of abstracting, separating, withdrawing, or taking away; withdrawal; the state of being taken away while abstract is an abridgement or summary . As a adjective abstract is(obsolete) derived; extracted . As a verb abstract isto separate; to disengage . Other Comparisons: What’s the difference?
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