Abstraction

Definitions

1. The act of abstracting, separating, withdrawing, or taking away; withdrawal; the state of being taken away.
   countable, uncountable
2. The taking surreptitiously for one's own use part of the property of another; purloining.
   countable, euphemistic, uncountable
3. Removal of water from a river, lake, or aquifer.
   countable, uncountable
4. A separation from worldly objects; a recluse life; the withdrawal from one's senses.
   countable, uncountable
5. 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
6. 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
7. A member of an idealized subgroup when contemplated according to the abstracted quality which defines the subgroup.
   countable, uncountable
8. 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
9. An idea or notion of an abstract or theoretical nature.
   countable, uncountable
10. Absence or absorption of mind; inattention to present objects; preoccupation.
    countable, uncountable
11. An abstract creation, or piece of art; qualities of artwork that are free from representational aspects.
    countable, uncountable
12. A separation of volatile parts by the act of distillation.
    countable, uncountable
13. An idea of an idealistic, unrealistic or visionary nature.
    countable, uncountable
14. The result of mentally abstracting an idea; the product of any mental process involving a synthesis of: separation, despecification, generalization, and ideation in any of a number of combinations.
    countable, uncountable
15. The merging of two river valleys by the larger of the two deepening and widening so much so, as to assimilate the smaller.
    countable, uncountable
16. Hiding implementation details from the interface of a component, to decrease complexity through interdependency and improve modularity; a construct that serves as such.
    countable, uncountable

Equivalents

15 more languages

العربيةاختلاسالفكرة المجرّدةتجريدتلخيصشرود الذهن+ 2 more

Bosanskiapstrakcijaапстракција

Češtinaabstrakce

Ελληνικάαφαίρεση

Esperantoabstraktaĵo

Suomiabstrahoiminenabstrahointiabstraktio

Hrvatskiapstrakcijaапстракција

한국어추상

Latinaabstractio

Latviešuabstrahēšanaabstrakcija

Nederlandsontvreemdingtoeëigeningvage voorstellingvisionair begrip+ 1 more

Polskiabstrakcjaabstrakt

Српскиapstrakcijaапстракција

Türkçeabstraksiyondalgınlık

Українськаабстрагованістьабстрагуванняабстрактністьабстракція+ 1 more

Examples

“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”

“"One penny, sir!" He was roused at once from his abstraction; for it was a question⟳ to himself whether he had even that in his pocket. Sixpence was, however, discovered; he paid the toll, and passed on.”

“At one point⟳, her spidery abstractions gave way to a series of abruptly syncopated hits, like⟳ a deranged allusion to the Thelonious Monk tune⟳ “Evidence.””

“Files are an abstraction provided by the file⟳ system for storing data, so that applications do not have⟳ to care how that data is stored.”

CEFR level