Absolute Meaning
/ˈæb.sə.luːt/Definition, CEFR level B1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
adjFree of restrictions, limitations, qualifications or conditions; unconditional.
adjFree of restrictions, limitations, qualifications or conditions; unconditional., Unrestricted by laws, a constitution, or parliamentary or judicial or other checks; (legally) unlimited in power, especially if despotic.
Sentence Examples
That's the absolute truth.
I have absolute trust in you.
I've joined a class for absolute beginners.
Synonyms & Antonyms
Antonyms:
CEFR Practice Quiz
The dictator demanded ____ obedience from all citizens.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The king had ____ power over his subjects in ancient times.
Word Origin & History
First attested around 1380. From Middle English absolut, from Middle French absolut, from Latin absolūtus (“unconditional; unfettered; completed”), perfect passive participle of absolvō (“loosen, set free, complete”), from ab (“away”) + solvo (“to loose”). Influenced in part by Old French absolu. Compare absolve.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"While Americans enjoy an almost absolute freedom to name their children whatever they please, in Germany the State (as public guardian of the good of the child) restricts parents [...]"
— 2005, Names, volume 53, page 238:
"An absolute monarch is free from all forcible restraint, and so far as he is absolute[,] from all legal restraints of positive laws."
— 1846, George Gillespie, The Presbyterian's Armoury:
"The peddler stopped, and tapped her on the head, / With absolute forefinger, brown and ringed."
— 1856, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Aurora Leigh:
"[…] the more absolute the ruler, the more absolute the revolution will be which replaces him."
— 1962, Hannah Arendt, On Revolution, published 1990, page 155:
"So absolute she seems, / And in herself complete."
— 1667, John Milton, “Book VIII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
Explore More B1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The dictator demanded ____ obedience from all citizens.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The king had ____ power over his subjects in ancient times.