abstraction
UK /əbˈstɹæk.ʃn̩/ · US /æbˈstɹæk.ʃn̩/ noun
Forms abstractions
- noun The act of abstracting, separating, withdrawing, or taking away; withdrawal; the state of being taken away.
- noun (euphemistic) The taking surreptitiously for one's own use part of the property of another; purloining.
- noun (engineering) Removal of water from a river, lake, or aquifer.
- noun A separation from worldly objects; a recluse life; the withdrawal from one's senses. “a hermit’s abstraction”
- 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. “Abstraction is necessary for the classification of things into genera and species.”
- 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.
- noun A member of an idealized subgroup when contemplated according to the abstracted quality which defines the subgroup.
- noun The act of comparing commonality between distinct objects and organizing using those similarities; the act of generalizing characteristics; the product of said generalization.
Synonyms
universalization abstract generalization generalisation abstractedness abstract entity
Antonyms
Etymology
From Middle English abstraccyone; either from Middle French abstraction or from Medieval Latin abstrāctiō (“separation”), from Latin abstrahō (“draw away”). Equivalent to abstract + -ion.
Webster’s 1913
- noun The act of abstracting, separating, or withdrawing, or the state of being withdrawn; withdrawal.
- noun The act process of leaving out of consideration one or more properties of a complex object so as to attend to others; analysis.
Etymology [Cf. F. abstraction. See Abstract, a.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “abstraction”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details