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abstraction - 5 dictionary results
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ab⋅strac⋅tion

  [ab-strak-shuhn]
Use abstraction in a Sentence
–noun
1. an abstract or general idea or term.
2. the act of considering something as a general quality or characteristic, apart from concrete realities, specific objects, or actual instances.
3. an impractical idea; something visionary and unrealistic.
4. the act of taking away or separating; withdrawal: The sensation of cold is due to the abstraction of heat from our bodies.
5. secret removal, esp. theft.
6. absent-mindedness; inattention; mental absorption.
7. Fine Arts.
a. the abstract qualities or characteristics of a work of art.
b. a work of art, esp. a nonrepresentational one, stressing formal relationships.
Origin:
1540–50; < LL abstractiōn- (s. of abstractiō) separation. See abstract, -ion

Related forms:
ab⋅strac⋅tion⋅al, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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ab·strac·tion   (āb-strāk'shən, əb-)   
n.  
    1. The act of abstracting or the state of having been abstracted.
    2. An abstract concept, idea, or term.
    3. An abstract quality.
  2. Preoccupation; absent-mindedness.
  3. An abstract work of art.
ab·strac'tion·al, ab·strac'tive adj.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Abstraction

Ab*strac"tion\, n. [Cf. F. abstraction. See Abstract, a.]

1. The act of abstracting, separating, or withdrawing, or the state of being withdrawn; withdrawal.

A wrongful abstraction of wealth from certain members of the community. --J. S. Mill.

2. (Metaph.) The act process of leaving out of consideration one or more properties of a complex object so as to attend to others; analysis. Thus, when the mind considers the form of a tree by itself, or the color of the leaves as separate from their size or figure, the act is called abstraction. So, also, when it considers whiteness, softness, virtue, existence, as separate from any particular objects.

Note: Abstraction is necessary to classification, by which things are arranged in genera and species. We separate in idea the qualities of certain objects, which are of the same kind, from others which are different, in each, and arrange the objects having the same properties in a class, or collected body.

Abstraction is no positive act: it is simply the negative of attention. --Sir W. Hamilton.

3. An idea or notion of an abstract, or theoretical nature; as, to fight for mere abstractions.

4. A separation from worldly objects; a recluse life; as, a hermit's abstraction.

5. Absence or absorption of mind; inattention to present objects.

6. The taking surreptitiously for one's own use part of the property of another; purloining. [Modern]

7. (Chem.) A separation of volatile parts by the act of distillation. --Nicholson.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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abstraction ab·strac·tion (āb-strāk'shən, əb-)
n.

  1. Distillation or separation of the volatile constituents of a substance.
  2. Exclusive mental concentration; absent-mindedness.
  3. A malocclusion in which the teeth or associated structures are lower than their normal occlusal plane.
  4. The selection of a certain aspect of a concept from the whole.

The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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abstraction
1. Generalisation; ignoring or hiding details to capture some kind of commonality between different instances. Examples are abstract data types (the representation details are hidden), abstract syntax (the details of the concrete syntax are ignored), abstract interpretation (details are ignored to analyse specific properties).
2. Parameterisation, making something a function of something else. Examples are lambda abstractions (making a term into a function of some variable), higher-order functions (parameters are functions), bracket abstraction (making a term into a function of a variable).
Opposite of concretisation.
(1998-06-04)

The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, © 1993-2007 Denis Howe
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