- 1based on general ideas and not on any particular real person, thing, or situation abstract knowledge/principles The research shows that preschool children are capable of thinking in abstract terms. compare concrete
Want to learn more?
Find out which words work together and produce more natural sounding English with the Oxford Collocations Dictionary app.
- 2existing in thought or as an idea but not having a physical reality We may talk of beautiful things, but beauty itself is abstract.
- 3(of art) not representing people or things in a realistic way, but expressing the artist's ideas about them the work of abstract expressionists like Mark Rothko compare figurative, representational
See abstract in the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary
Check pronunciation: abstract