abstraction
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /əbˈstɹæk.ʃn̩/
ipa: /æbˈstɹæk.ʃn̩/
ipa: /əbˈstɹæk.ʃn̩/
Forms: form: abstractions
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.
Senses: examples: text: 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.
ref: 1848, J. S. Mill, Principles of Political Economy with some of their Applications to Social Philosophy:
coordinate_terms: extraction
glosses: The act of abstracting, separating, withdrawing, or taking away; withdrawal; the state of being taken away.
coordinate_terms: extraction
glosses: The act of abstracting, separating, withdrawing, or taking away; withdrawal; the state of being taken away.
The taking surreptitiously for one's own use part of the property of another; purloining.
topics: engineering
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
coordinate_terms: extraction
glosses: The act of abstracting, separating, withdrawing, or taking away; withdrawal; the state of being taken away.
Removal of water from a river, lake, or aquifer.
examples: text: a hermit’s abstraction
glosses: A separation from worldly objects; a recluse life; the withdrawal from one's senses.
examples: text: Holonym: induction
text: Abstraction is no positive act: it is simply the negative of attention.
ref: c. 1837, W. Hamilton, Lectures on Metaphysics and Logic, published 1860, Lecture XXXV, page 474:
text: Abstraction is necessary for the classification of things into genera and species.
glosses: 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.
glosses: 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.
glosses: A member of an idealized subgroup when contemplated according to the abstracted quality which defines the subgroup.
glosses: The act of comparing commonality between distinct objects and organizing using those similarities; the act of generalizing characteristics; the product of said generalization.
examples: text: to fight for mere abstractions
glosses: An idea or notion of an abstract or theoretical nature.
examples: text: "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.
ref: 1832, Letitia Elizabeth Landon, Heath's Book of Beauty, 1833, The Talisman, page 55:
glosses: Absence or absorption of mind; inattention to present objects; preoccupation.
topics: art
arts
glosses: An abstract creation, or piece of art; qualities of artwork that are free from representational aspects.
topics: chemistry
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
glosses: A separation of volatile parts by the act of distillation.
glosses: An idea of an idealistic, unrealistic or visionary nature.
glosses: 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.
topics: geography
geology
natural-sciences
glosses: The merging of two river valleys by the larger of the two deepening and widening so much so, as to assimilate the smaller.
examples: text: 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.
topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
glosses: Hiding implementation details from the interface of a component, to decrease complexity through interdependency and improve modularity; a construct that serves as such.
Synonyms: sense: the act of generalization
word: universalization
word: generalization
Derived terms: abstractional
abstractionism
abstractionist
abstractionistic
abstractive
eccentric abstraction
lambda abstraction
leaky abstraction
semiabstraction
Related terms: abstract