Abstract | English Vocabulary

Other words in the family

Abstraction, abstractions, abstractly, abstracts

Definitions

Abstract as an adjective

1) not concrete; that which can only be felt or appreciated intellectually

• Truth and honesty are abstract ideas.
• I was never really good at understanding abstract concepts and that probably explains why I always get lows marks in mathematics.

2) used to describe an argument that is too general and not based on concrete facts or examples

• I quit when the discussion started becoming too abstract.

Abstract as a verb

1) to obtain information from books or other research materials

• These facts were abstracted from magazine articles.