Complete Definition of "absolute"

wikipedia|dab=Absolute
English

Etymology
Latin absolutus (unconditional), past participle of absolvere. Compare French absolu. See absolve.

Pronunciation
IPA|/�æbs��lu�t/, /�æbs��lu�t/
SAMPA|/"{bs@%lu:t/, /%{bs@"lu:t/
audio|en-us-absolute.ogg|Audio (US)
audio|en-uk-Absolute.ogg|Audio (UK)

Adjective
en-adj|more absolute or (rarely) absoluter|most absolute or (rarely) absolutest

  1. Loosed from any limitation or condition; uncontrolled; unrestricted; unconditional; as, absolute authority, monarchy, sovereignty, an absolute promise or command.

#* 1962, Hannah Arendt, On Revolution, (1990), page 155
#*: [T]he more absolute the ruler, the more absolute the revolution will be which replaces him.

  1. complete|Complete in itself; perfect; consummate; faultless.

#: absolute perfection
#: absolute beauty
#* So absolute she seems, And in herself complete. �w:John Milton|John Milton

  1. Viewed apart from modifying influences or without comparison with other objects; actual; real; � opposed to relative and compar; as, absolute motion; absolute time or space.

#: 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.

  1. 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.

  1. Capable of being thought or conceived by itself alone; unconditioned; non-relative.

#: Note: It is in dispute among philosophers 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. �w:William Hamilton|William Hamilton

  1. rare Positive; clear; certain; not doubtful.

#* I am absolute �t was very Cloten. �Shakespeare, Cymbeline, IV,ii

  1. rare Authoritative; peremptory.

#* The peddler stopped, and tapped her on the head, With absolute forefinger, brown and ringed. �w:Elizabeth Barrett Browning|Elizabeth Barrett Browning

  1. chemistry Pure; unmixed; as, absolute alcohol.
  2. grammar Not immediately dependent on the other parts of the sentence in government; as, the case absolute. (See ablative absolute.)

Synonyms
Positive; peremptory; certain; unconditional; unlimited; unrestricted; unqualified; arbitrary; despotic; autocratic.

Derived terms
ablative absolute
absolute curvature Geometry: that curvature of a curve of double curvature, which is measured in the osculating plane of the curve.
absolute equation Astronomy: the sum of the optic and eccentric equations.
absolute magnitude
absolute majority
absolute monarchy
absolute music Music: music written for its own sake, with no direct reference to anything outside itself. It has no words and does not depict a story.
absolute pitch
absolute power: unrestrained authority to act in an area
absolute space physics: space considered without relation to material limits or objects.
absolute terms Algebra: such as are known, or which do not contain the unknown quantity.
absolute temperature physics: the temperature as measured on a scale determined by certain general thermo-dynamic principles, and reckoned from the absolute zero.
absolute value
absolute zero physics: the beginning, or zero point, in the scale of absolute temperature. It is equivalent to −273.15 degrees Celsius or −459.67 degrees Fahrenheit. See also kelvin and degree Rankine.

Translations
trans-top
Chinese: �对 (juéduì)
Dutch: absoluut
Finnish: absoluuttinen
French: absolu
German: absolut
Hebrew: ����� (mukhlat') m, �����ת (mukhlet'et) f
Ido: absoluta
Indonesian: mutlak
Interlingua: absolute
Italian: assoluto
trans-mid
Japanese: 絶対 (����, zettai)
Korean: 무��� (mujehan-ui)
Norwegian: absolutt
Novial: absoluti
Portuguese: absoluto
Russian: аб�ол��н�й (absoljútnyj)
Spanish: absoluto
Swedish: absolut (1,3)
Turkish: kesin
Volapük: leverik
trans-bottom

Noun
en-noun

  1. geometry In a plane, the two imaginary circular points at infinity; in space of three dimensions, the imaginary circle at infinity.
  2. grammar The first of the three degrees of comparison.
  3. That which is independent of context-dependent interpretation, inviolate, fundamental (referring to Adjective Definition 4)

#: as in moral absolutes

Translations
trans-top
Dutch: absolute n
French: absolu m
German: Positiv m (2)
trans-mid
Russian: положи�ел�н�й|положи�ел�на� ��епен� (položítel�naja stépen�) f (2)
Spanish: positivo m (2)
Swedish: positiv n (2)
Turkish: pozitif
trans-bottom

References
R:Webster 1913


Latin

Etymology
From term|absolutus|absolūtus|complete, finished|lang=la

Adverb
la-adv|absolut|absolūt|e

  1. absolutely, completely, fully

Related terms
absolutus|absolūtus

References
Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, 1st edition. (Oxford University Press)

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