abstraction
/æbˈstɹæk.ʃn̩/
Frequency: 3.30 in modern English
Meaning
noun
The act of abstracting, separating, withdrawing, or taking away; withdrawal; the state of being taken away.
Countable; Uncountable
noun
The act of abstracting, separating, withdrawing, or taking away; withdrawal; the state of being taken away.
Countable; Uncountable
noun
The act of abstracting, separating, withdrawing, or taking away; withdrawal; the state of being taken away.
Countable; Uncountable
noun
A separation from worldly objects; a recluse life; the withdrawal from one's senses.
Countable; Uncountable
noun
The act of focusing on one characteristic of an object rather than the object as a whole group of characteristics; the act of separating said qualities from the object or ideas.
Countable; Uncountable
noun
Any characteristic of an individual object when that characteristic has been separated from the object and is contemplated alone as a quality having independent existence.
Countable; Uncountable
noun
A member of an idealized subgroup when contemplated according to the abstracted quality which defines the subgroup.
Countable; Uncountable
noun
The act of comparing commonality between distinct objects and organizing using those similarities; the act of generalizing characteristics; the product of said generalization.
Countable; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "The cancelling of the debt would be no destruction of wealth, but a transfer of it: a wrongful abstraction of wealth from certain members of the community, for the profit of the government, or of the tax-payers."
- "a hermit’s abstraction"
- "Holonym: induction"
- "Abstraction is no positive act: it is simply the negative of attention."
- "Abstraction is necessary for the classification of things into genera and species."
- "to fight for mere abstractions"
Etymology
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: abstraccyone, abstraction, abstrāctiō, abstrahō
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /æbˈstɹæk.ʃn̩/
- British English: /əbˈstɹæk.ʃn̩/