abstract

CEFRB2

/ˈæbˌstɹækt/

adjective · noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

01
adjective
Based on ideas rather than physical things or clear examples.
02
adjective
Extra detail
Something that concentrates in itself the qualities of a larger item, or multiple items.

Examples

The new theory is too abstract for ordinary people.
The theory is too abstract for me.

At a glance

Sits at B2 on the CEFR scale

Senses: 5
Parts of speech: 2
Citations: 5
Synonyms: 5

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

An abridgement or summary of a longer publication.
Concentrated essence of a product.
A powdered solid extract of a medicinal substance mixed with lactose.

More examples

In context

To him, hunger was an abstract concept; he always had enough to eat.
Her new film is an abstract piece, combining elements of magic realism, flashbacks, and animation but with very little in terms of plot construction.
The more abstract we are from the body ... the more fit we shall be to behold divine light.

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The artist prefers to paint blank shapes rather than realistic landscapes.

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Nearby

Citations

The word in print, with each source given in full.

An analysis and abstract of every treatise he had read.
1741, I[saac] Watts, The Improvement of the Mind: Or, A Supplement to the Art of Logick: […], London: […] James Brackstone, […], →OCLC
Man, the abstract Of all perfection, which the workmanship Of Heaven hath modeled.
1628, John Ford, The Lover's Melancholy
Thus the concrete like has its abstract likeness; the concretes, father and son, have the abstracts, paternity and filiation.
1843, John Stuart Mill, chapter II, in A System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Inductive, being a Connected View of the Principles of Evidence, and the Methods of Scientific Investigation. […], volume I, London: John W[illiam] Parker, […], →OCLC, page 54
During the late 1950s and throughout the 1960s, this commitment brought him into frequent critical confrontation with entrenched forms of conservative thinking (in academic areas from history and social science to the more abstract domains of ethical and political philosophy),[…]
1999, Nicholas Walker, “The Reorientation of Critical Theory: Habermas”, in Simon Glemdinning, editor, The Edinburgh Encyclopedia of Continental Philosophy, Routledge, →ISBN, page 489
Abstract words such as glory, honour, courage, or hallow were obscene.
1929, Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms

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Origin

adjective

From Middle English abstract, borrowed from Latin abstractus, perfect passive participle of abstrahō (“draw away”), formed from abs- (“away”) + trahō (“to pull, draw”). The verbal sense is first attested in 1542.