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   Ab·stract

   adjective

   • 1. existing in thought or as an idea but not having a physical or concrete existence: "abstract concepts such as love or beauty" Similar theoreticalconceptualnotionalintellectualmetaphysicalphilosophicalacademichypotheticalspeculativeconjecturalconjecturedsuppositionalputativerare:suppositioussuppositiveideationalOpposite actualconcrete
   • ▪ dealing with ideas rather than events: "the novel was too abstract and esoteric to sustain much attention"
   • ▪ not based on a particular instance; theoretical: "we have been discussing the problem in a very abstract manner" Similar theoreticalconceptualnotionalintellectualmetaphysicalphilosophicalacademichypotheticalspeculativeconjecturalconjecturedsuppositionalputativerare:suppositioussuppositiveideationalOpposite actualconcrete
   • ▪ (of a word, especially a noun) denoting an idea, quality, or state rather than a concrete object: "abstract words like truth or equality"
   • 2. relating to abstract art: "abstract pictures that look like commercial color charts" Similar nonrepresentationalnonrealisticnonpictorialsymbolicimpressionisticOpposite representational

   verb

   • 1. consider (something) theoretically or separately from something else: "to abstract science and religion from their historical context can lead to anachronism"
   • 2. extract or remove (something): "applications to abstract more water from streams" Similar extractpumpdraw (off)tapsuckwithdrawremovetake out/awayseparatedetachisolatedissociate
   • ▪ used euphemistically to say that someone has stolen something: "his pockets contained all he had been able to abstract from the apartment"
   • ▪ withdraw: "as our relationship deepened you seemed to abstract yourself"
   • 3. make a written summary of (an article or book): "staff who index and abstract material for an online database" Similar summarizewrite a summary ofprecisabridgecondensecompressshortencut downabbreviatesynopsizerare:epitomize

   noun

   • 1. a summary of the contents of a book, article, or formal speech: "an abstract of his inaugural address"
   • 2. an abstract work of art: "a big unframed abstract"
   • 3. that which is abstract; the theoretical consideration of something: "the abstract must be made concrete by examples"

   Word Origin Middle English: from Latin abstractus, literally ‘drawn away’, past participle of abstrahere, from ab- ‘from’ + trahere ‘draw off’.

   Derivatives

   • 1. abstractly adverb

   Scrabble Points: 12

   • A

     1

   • B

     3

   • S

     1

   • T

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   • R

     1

   • A

     1

   • C

     3

   • T

     1

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