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abstract

1 of 3

adjective

1
a
: disassociated from any specific instance
an abstract entity
b
: difficult to understand : abstruse
abstract problems
c
: insufficiently factual : formal
possessed only an abstract right
2
: expressing a quality apart from an object
the word poem is concrete, poetry is abstract
3
a
: dealing with a subject in its abstract aspects : theoretical
abstract science
b
: impersonal, detached
the abstract compassion of a surgeon Time
4
: having only intrinsic form with little or no attempt at pictorial representation or narrative content
abstract painting
abstractly
ab-ˈstrak(t)-lē How to pronounce abstract (audio)
ˈab-ˌstrak(t)-
adverb
abstractness
ab-ˈstrak(t)-nəs How to pronounce abstract (audio)
ˈab-ˌstrak(t)-
noun

abstract

2 of 3

noun

ab·​stract ˈab-ˌstrakt How to pronounce abstract (audio)
in sense 2 also
ab-ˈstrakt How to pronounce abstract (audio)
1
: a summary of points (as of a writing) usually presented in skeletal form
also : something that summarizes or concentrates the essentials of a larger thing or several things
2
: an abstract thing or state (see abstract entry 1)
3

abstract

3 of 3

verb

ab·​stract ab-ˈstrakt How to pronounce abstract (audio) ˈab-ˌstrakt How to pronounce abstract (audio)
in sense 3 usually
ˈab-ˌstrakt How to pronounce abstract (audio)
abstracted; abstracting; abstracts

transitive verb

1
: to make a summary or abstract of : summarize
abstract an academic paper
2
: to draw away the attention of
His imagination had so abstracted him that his name was called twice before he answered. James Joyce
3
: steal, purloin
She abstracted important documents from the safe.
4
5
: to consider apart from application to or association with a particular instance
abstractable
ab-ˈstrak-tə-bəl How to pronounce abstract (audio)
ˈab-ˌstrak-
adjective
abstractor noun
or abstracter
ab-ˈstrak-tər How to pronounce abstract (audio)
ˈab-ˌstrak-

Did you know?

The Crisscrossing Histories of Abstract and Extract

Abstract is most frequently used as an adjective (“abstract ideas”) and a noun (“an abstract of the article”), but its somewhat less common use as a verb in English helps to clarify its Latin roots. The verb abstract is used to mean “summarize,” as in “abstracting an academic paper.” This meaning is a figurative derivative of the verb’s meanings “to remove” or “to separate.”

We trace the origins of abstract to the combination of the Latin roots ab-, a prefix meaning “from” or “away,” with the verb trahere, meaning “to pull” or “to draw.” The result was the Latin verb abstrahere, which meant “to remove forcibly” or “to drag away.” Its past participle abstractus had the meanings “removed,” “secluded,” “incorporeal,” and, ultimately, “summarized,” meanings which came to English from Medieval Latin.

Interestingly, the word passed from Latin into French with competing spellings as both abstract (closer to the Latin) and abstrait (which reflected the French form of abstrahere, abstraire), the spelling retained in modern French.

The idea of “removing” or “pulling away” connects abstract to extract, which stems from Latin through the combination of trahere with the prefix ex-, meaning “out of” or “away from.” Extract forms a kind of mirror image of abstract: more common as a verb, but also used as a noun and adjective. The adjective, meaning “derived or descended,” is now obsolete, as is a sense of the noun that overlapped with abstract, “summary.” The words intersected and have separated in modern English, but it’s easy to see that abstract applies to something that has been summarized, and summarized means “extracted from a larger work.”

Example Sentences

Adjective It is true that the atrocities that were known remained abstract and remote, rarely acquiring the status of knee-buckling knowledge among ordinary Americans. Because the savagery of genocide so defies our everyday experience, many of us failed to wrap our minds around it. Samantha Power, New York Times Book Review, 14 Mar. 2002 A glance into the classrooms of the Los Angeles public school system … fleshes out the abstract debates with the faces of children. Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs, and Steel, 1997 I take my photographs and print them on a laser copying machine in the "photo" mode; the resulting image is more stark and abstract than a traditional photographic print, which tends to dominate the page regardless of the text. Leslie Marmon Silko, Yellow Woman and a Beauty of the Spirit, 1996 abstract ideas such as love and hate “Honesty” is an abstract word. The word “poem” is concrete, the word “poetry” is abstract. Noun an artist admired for his abstracts the scientist wrote a bare-bones abstract of his research and conclusions Verb … artists in the group put the emphasis on geometric abstraction rather than images abstracted from nature. Robert Atkins, Art Spoke, 1993 … the Romantic project was to abstract from religion its essential "feeling" and leave contemptuously behind its traditional formulations. Theodore Roszak, The Making of a Counter Culture, 1969 … conscientiously and with great purity made the uncompromising effort to abstract his view of life into an art work … Norman Mailer, Advertisements for Myself, 1959 … basic esthetic criteria and standards he has abstracted from long intimacy with time-tested masterpieces. Aline B. Saarinen, New York Times Book Review, 7 Nov. 1954 Data for the study was abstracted from hospital records. personal problems abstracted him so persistently that he struggled to keep his mind on his work See More
Recent Examples on the Web
Adjective
Almost every Batman villain has some abstract goal that's relatable at its core but horrifying in practice. Christian Holub, EW.com, 15 Sep. 2022 Richter’s endless toggling between photographs and large-scale abstract paintings showed the high-art world that an apprehension of meaninglessness and a technique dependent on chance could nonetheless produce images of ravishing beauty. Sebastian Smee, Washington Post, 15 Sep. 2022 Klein was best known for his photography, which encompassed and intertwined a wide array of subjects including candid street photography, kinetic fashion shoots and high-contrast abstract work. Justin Kamp, CNN, 14 Sep. 2022 The vanity and abstract print echo the gentle aqua shade and create a serene look that's not overpowering. Sophie Flaxman, Better Homes & Gardens, 14 Sep. 2022 Each found the director experimenting with new techniques, including the use of camera-phone footage in Film Socialisme and 3D in Goodbye to Language, which Godard distorted into beguiling abstract compositions. Jordan Mintzer, The Hollywood Reporter, 13 Sep. 2022 These abstract art moment pop up in each room, adding ease and comfort to the space. House Beautiful, 13 Sep. 2022 The beautiful bottle features her signature abstract work. Allure Editors, Allure, 13 Sep. 2022 Finally, the Coda star paired the vibrant outfit with a pair of black leather knee-high heeled boots and a matching black leather shoulder bag with gold hardware, and accessorized with two abstract silver cuffs by AGMES and a matching nose hoop. Rosa Sanchez, Harper's BAZAAR, 12 Sep. 2022
Noun
Danny and Sasha had been married for less than a year, and Janet, who had no objection to their union in particular, was not yet used to the idea in the abstract: her child was someone’s wife. Clare Sestanovich, The New Yorker, 25 July 2022 Opening a store seems like a solid enough plan in the abstract, although these characters — impulsive, immature and all-around irresponsible — could almost certainly be counted on to screw it up. Peter Debruge, Variety, 25 May 2022 The conceptual drawings of what would eventually become $5-billion SoFi Stadium impressed players in the abstract. Los Angeles Times, 6 Feb. 2022 Resolving to change course sounds appealing in the abstract. Damon Linker, The Week, 1 Feb. 2022 Such statistics have become hard to fathom in the abstract. Tim Carman, Washington Post, 7 Feb. 2022 In the video abstract, Brennan says this seems to be the case for dolphins as well. Margaret Osborne, Smithsonian Magazine, 13 Jan. 2022 In the study’s abstract and conclusions, the researchers noted that the environment of the time may have supported multiple creatures the same size. Joshua Hawkins, BGR, 2 Jan. 2022 From the Indonesian American heritage to the Canadian Midwest, Paris in the pandemic and the human body, these new books travel across worlds and into the abstract. New York Times, 22 Dec. 2021
Verb
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 For four years, Dot Benedict and Kathryn Riley teamed up to abstract the minutes of the Carroll County Orphan’s Court from 1837 through 1885. Mary Ann Ashcraft, baltimoresun.com/maryland/carroll, 14 Nov. 2021 Patch’s platform seeks to abstract away the complexity of managing carbon offsets, making offset projects accessible via an API and a few lines of code. Rob Toews, Forbes, 31 Oct. 2021 The data layer would then be able to consume and utilize RAN data in an accessible, open and aligned manner, abstract it and then normalize it. Ofir Zemer, Forbes, 24 Sep. 2021 Humans, on the other hand, are often able to abstract away from existing examples in order to recognize new never-before-seen items. Ryan Khurana, Scientific American, 2 Jan. 2021 See More

Word History

Etymology

Adjective

Middle English, "withdrawn, removed, abstruse, extracted from a longer work, (of nouns in grammar) not concrete," borrowed from Medieval Latin abstractus "removed, secluded, incorporeal, universal, extracted from a larger work, summarized," going back to Latin, past participle of abstrahere "to remove forcibly, turn aside, divert," from abs- (variant of ab- ab- before c- and t-) + trahere "to drag, draw, take along" — more at draw entry 1

Noun

Middle English, derivative of abstract abstract entry 1 (or borrowed directly from Medieval Latin abstractus)

Verb

Middle English abstracten "to draw away, remove," derivative of abstract abstract entry 1 (or borrowed directly from Latin abstractus)

First Known Use

Adjective

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 2

Noun

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 2

Verb

15th century, in the meaning defined at transitive sense 4

Time Traveler
The first known use of abstract was in the 14th century

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