Definitions for: Absolute


[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"
[adj] perfect or complete or pure; "absolute loyalty"; "absolute silence"; "absolute truth"; "absolute alcohol"
[adj] not capable of being violated or infringed; "infrangible human rights"
[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"
[adj] without conditions or limitations; "a total ban"
[adj] not limited by law; "an absolute monarch"
[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"



Webster (1913) Definition: 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.


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.

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

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