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Meaning of ABSOLUTE

Pronunciation:  'absu`loot

WordNet Dictionary
 
 Definition: 
  1. [n]  something that is conceived to be absolute; something that does not depends on anything else and is beyond human control; "no mortal being can influence the absolute"
  2. [adj]  perfect or complete or pure; "absolute loyalty"; "absolute silence"; "absolute truth"; "absolute alcohol"
  3. [adj]  not capable of being violated or infringed; "infrangible human rights"
  4. [adj]  complete and without restriction or qualification; sometimes used informally as intensifiers; "absolute freedom"; "an absolute dimwit"; "a downright lie"; "out-and-out mayhem"; "an out-and-out lie"; "a rank outsider"; "many right-down vices"; "got the job through sheer persistence"; "sheer stupidity"
  5. [adj]  without conditions or limitations; "a total ban"
  6. [adj]  not limited by law; "an absolute monarch"
  7. [adj]  expressing finality with no implication of possible change; "an absolute (or unequivocal) quarantee to respect the nation's authority"; "inability to make a conclusive (or unequivocal) refusal"
 
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 Synonyms: arbitrary, complete, conclusive, dead(a), direct, downright, implicit, inalienable, independent, infinite, infrangible, inviolable, living, out-and-out(a), pure, rank(a), right-down, sheer(a), syntactically independent, total, unalienable, unambiguous, unconditional, unconditioned, undiluted, unequivocal, univocal, unmixed, unquestioning, utter(a), very(a)
 
 Antonyms: relative
 
 See Also: abstract, abstraction

 

 

Webster's 1913 Dictionary
 
 Definition: 
  1. \Ab"so*lute\, a. [L. absolutus, p. p. of absolvere: cf.
    F. absolu. See {Absolve}.]
    1. Loosed from any limitation or condition; uncontrolled;
       unrestricted; unconditional; as, absolute authority,
       monarchy, sovereignty, an absolute promise or command;
       absolute power; an absolute monarch.
    2. Complete in itself; perfect; consummate; faultless; as,
       absolute perfection; absolute beauty.
             So absolute she seems, And in herself complete.
                                                   --Milton.
    3. Viewed apart from modifying influences or without
       comparison with other objects; actual; real; -- opposed to
       {relative} and {comparative}; as, absolute motion;
       absolute time or space.
    Note: Absolute rights and duties are such as pertain to man
          in a state of nature as contradistinguished from
          relative rights and duties, or such as pertain to him
          in his social relations.
    4. Loosed from, or unconnected by, dependence on any other
       being; self-existent; self-sufficing.
    Note: In this sense God is called the Absolute by the Theist.
          The term is also applied by the Pantheist to the
          universe, or the total of all existence, as only
          capable of relations in its parts to each other and to
          the whole, and as dependent for its existence and its
          phenomena on its mutually depending forces and their
          laws.
    5. Capable of being thought or conceived by itself alone;
       unconditioned; non-relative.
    Note: It is in dispute among philosopher whether the term, in
          this sense, is not applied to a mere logical fiction or
          abstraction, or whether the absolute, as thus defined,
          can be known, as a reality, by the human intellect.
                To Cusa we can indeed articulately trace, word
                and thing, the recent philosophy of the absolute.
                                                   --Sir W.
                                                   Hamilton.
    6. Positive; clear; certain; not doubtful. [R.]
             I am absolute 't was very Cloten.     --Shak.
    7. Authoritative; peremptory. [R.]
             The peddler stopped, and tapped her on the head,
             With absolute forefinger, brown and ringed. --Mrs.
                                                   Browning.
    8. (Chem.) Pure; unmixed; as, absolute alcohol.
    9. (Gram.) Not immediately dependent on the other parts of
       the sentence in government; as, the case absolute. See
       {Ablative absolute}, under {Ablative}.
    {Absolute curvature} (Geom.), that curvature of a curve of
       double curvature, which is measured in the osculating
       plane of the curve.
    {Absolute equation} (Astron.), the sum of the optic and
       eccentric equations.
    {Absolute space} (Physics), space considered without relation
       to material limits or objects.
    {Absolute terms}. (Alg.), such as are known, or which do not
       contain the unknown quantity. --Davies & Peck.
    {Absolute temperature} (Physics), the temperature as measured
       on a scale determined by certain general thermo-dynamic
       principles, and reckoned from the absolute zero.
    {Absolute zero} (Physics), the be ginning, or zero point, in
       the scale of absolute temperature. It is equivalent to
       -273[deg] centigrade or -459.4[deg] Fahrenheit.
    Syn: Positive; peremptory; certain; unconditional; unlimited;
         unrestricted; unqualified; arbitrary; despotic;
         autocratic.
    
  2. \Ab"so*lute\, n. (Geom.)
    In a plane, the two imaginary circular points at infinity; in
    space of three dimensions, the imaginary circle at infinity.
    
 
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Thesaurus Terms
 
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wide-open, without appeal, without exception, without reserve, without strings
 

 

 

 

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