Absolute Definition

absolute

English

Etymology

Middle French absolut, from Latin absolūtus (“unconditional”), perfect passive participle of absolvō (“loosen, free; complete”). Compare French absolu. See absolve.

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈæbsəˌluːt/, /ˌæbsəˈluːt/, SAMPA: /"{bs@%lu:t/, /%{bs@"lu:t/

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Adjective

absolute (comparative more absolute or (rarely) absoluter, superlative 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.

2. Complete in itself; perfect; consummate; faultless.

   absolute perfection

   absolute beauty

   absolute coordinate (mensurated, but not by a JTAC)

   • So absolute she seems, And in herself complete. —John 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.

   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 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. —William Hamilton
6. (rare) Positive; clear; certain; not doubtful.
   • I am absolute ’t was very Cloten. —Shakespeare, Cymbeline, IV,ii
7. (rare) Authoritative; peremptory.
   • The peddler stopped, and tapped her on the head, With absolute forefinger, brown and ringed. —Elizabeth Barrett Browning
8. (chemistry) Pure; unmixed; as, absolute alcohol.
9. (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
• ultimate

Derived terms

Noun

absolute (plural absolutes)

1. That which is independent of context-dependent interpretation, inviolate, fundamental.

   moral absolutes

2. (geometry) In a plane, the two imaginary circular points at infinity; in space of three dimensions, the imaginary circle at infinity.
3. (philosophy, with definite article) A realm which exists without reference to anything else; that which can be imagined purely by itself.
   • 1983, Lawrence Durrell, Sebastian, Faber & Faber 2004 (Avignon Quintet), p. 1039:

     Withdrawn as a Buddha he sat, watching the alien world from his perch in the absolute.

Translations

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.

References

• absolute in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913

Anagrams

• bales out

Dutch

Adjective

absolute

1. The inflected form^FAQ of absoluut.

Esperanto

Pronunciation

• IPA: /apsoˈlute/

Adverb

absolute

1. absolutely

Latin

Etymology

From absolūtus (“complete, finished”).

Adverb

absolūtē (comparative absolūtius, superlative absolūtissimē)

1. absolutely, completely, fully

Related terms

• absolūtus

References

• absolute in Charlton T. Lewis & Charles Short, A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1879

Swedish

Adjective

absolute

1. absolute definite natural masculine form of absolut.

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See Also:

• Absolute Index of Refraction