Reference > American Heritage® > Dictionary
  abstinence abstracted  
CONTENTS · INDEX · ILLUSTRATIONS · BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD
   The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition.  2000.
 
abstract
 
SYLLABICATION:ab·stract
PRONUNCIATION:  b-strkt, bstrkt
ADJECTIVE:1. Considered apart from concrete existence: an abstract concept. 2. Not applied or practical; theoretical. See synonyms at theoretical. 3. Difficult to understand; abstruse: abstract philosophical problems. 4. Thought of or stated without reference to a specific instance: abstract words like truth and justice. 5. Impersonal, as in attitude or views. 6. Having an intellectual and affective artistic content that depends solely on intrinsic form rather than on narrative content or pictorial representation: abstract painting and sculpture.
NOUN:(bstrkt)1. A statement summarizing the important points of a text. 2. Something abstract.
TRANSITIVE VERB:Inflected forms: ab·stract·ed, ab·stract·ing, ab·stracts
(b-strkt)1. To take away; remove. 2. To remove without permission; filch. 3. To consider (a quality, for example) without reference to a particular example or object. 4. (bstrkt) To summarize; epitomize. 5. To create artistic abstractions of (something else, such as a concrete object or another style): “The Bauhaus Functionalists were . . . busy unornamenting and abstracting modern architecture, painting and design” (John Barth).
ETYMOLOGY:Middle English, from Latin abstractus, past participle of abstrahere, to draw away : abs-, ab-, away; see ab–1 + trahere, to draw.
OTHER FORMS:ab·stracterNOUN
ab·stractlyADVERB
ab·stractnessNOUN
 
 
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

CONTENTS · INDEX · ILLUSTRATIONS · BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD
  abstinence abstracted  
 
Google
Click here to shop the Bartleby Bookstore.
Welcome · Press · Advertising · Linking · Terms of Use · © 2008 Bartleby.com