absolute

comparative more absolute · comparative absoluter · superlative most absolute · superlative absolutest · alternative abs. · alternative absolut

1. Free of restrictions, limitations, qualifications or conditions; unconditional.First known use first attested in the late 1400s

   While Americans enjoy an almost absolute freedom to name their children whatever they please, in Germany the State (as public guardian of the good of the child) restricts parents [...]

   2005, Names, volume 53, page 238

   1. Unrestricted by laws, a constitution, or parliamentary or judicial or other checks; (legally) unlimited in power, especially if despotic.

      An absolute monarch is free from all forcible restraint, and so far as he is absolute[,] from all legal restraints of positive laws.

      1846, George Gillespie, The Presbyterian's Armoury

   2. Characteristic of an absolutist ruler: domineering, peremptory.

      The peddler stopped, and tapped her on the head, / With absolute forefinger, brown and ringed.

      1856, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Aurora Leigh

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      […] the more absolute the ruler, the more absolute the revolution will be which replaces him.

      1962, Hannah Arendt, On Revolution, published 1990, page 155

2. Free from imperfection, perfect, complete; especially, perfectly embodying a quality in its essential characteristics or to its highest degree.First known use first attested around 1400

   absolute purity, absolute liberty

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   So absolute she seems, / And in herself complete.

   1667, John Milton, “Book VIII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC

   Indeed, my lord, it is a most absolute and excellent horse.

   1599, William Shakespeare, Henry V

3. Pure, free from mixture or adulteration; unmixed.First known use first attested in the mid 1500s

   absolute alcohol

4. Complete, utter, outright; unmitigated, not qualified or diminished in any way.First known use first attested in the late 1500s

   You're an absolute genius!

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   an absolute denial of all charges

   When caught, he told an absolute lie.

   The growth and acceptance of this idea followed Amartya Sen's theory of exchange entitlements, which suggested that famines occur not from an absolute lack of food but from people's inability to obtain access to that food.

   2008, Household Economy Approach, →ISBN, page 3

5. very occasionally postpositivePositive, certain; unquestionable; not in doubt.First known use first attested in the early 1600s

   Yet if the register is not to be absolute evidence of proprietorship, it is clear that some investigation of title would still be necessary.

   1862, The Solicitors' Journal and Reporter, volume 6, page 365

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   [...] and in the absence of other signs, or when these latter are inconclusive, it is extremely useful. But it is not, under any circumstances, absolute evidence of the syphilitic nature of a given symptom or set of symptoms.

   1913, International Record of Medicine and General Practice Clinics

   Unless the determined lease to which the easements relate has been registered with title absolute and the easements have been entered without qualification in the register for that title, evidence must be lodged to prove [...]

   2021, HM Land Registry Practice Guide 26

6. archaicCertain; free from doubt or uncertainty (e.g. a person, opinion or prediction).First known use first attested in the early 1600s

   I am absolute ’twas very Cloten.

   1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii]

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   The colour of my hair—he cannot tell, Or answers "dark," at random,—while, be sure, He's absolute on the figure, live or ten, Of my last subscription.

   1856, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “(please specify either |book=1 to 9 or the page)”, in Aurora Leigh, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1857, →OCLC

7. especiallyhuman sciencesFundamental, ultimate, intrinsic; not relative; independent of references or relations to other things or standards.First known use first attested in the late 1700s

   the doctrine that absolute knowledge of things is possible; an absolute principle

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   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.

8. natural sciencesIndependent of arbitrary units of measurement, standards, or properties; not comparative or relative.

   absolute velocity, absolute motion, absolute position

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   His experiments led him to infer that the boiling point of the substance is probably below 9 degrees absolute.

   1903, Ice and Refrigeration, volume 24, page 49

   This new absolute temperature scale (also called the Kelvin scale) employs the SI unit of absolute temperature, the kelvin, […]

   2015, Raymond A. Serway, John W. Jewett, Physics for Scientists and Engineers, →ISBN

   1. natural sciencesHaving reference to or derived in the simplest manner from the fundamental units of mass, time, and length.
   2. natural sciencesRelating to the absolute temperature scale (based on absolute zero); kelvin.
9. Not immediately dependent on the other parts of the sentence; not in a syntactical relation with other parts of a text, or qualifying the text as a whole rather than any single word in it, like "it being over" in "it being over, she left".
   1. grammarSyntactically connected to the rest of the sentence in an atypical manner, or not relating to or depending on it, like in the nominative absolute or genitive absolute, accusative absolute or ablative absolute.First known use first attested around 1350 to 1470
   2. grammarLacking a modified substantive, like "hungry" in "feed the hungry".First known use first attested around 1350 to 1470
   3. grammarExpressing a relative term without a definite comparison, like "older" in "an older person should be treated with respect".First known use first attested around 1350 to 1470
   4. grammarPositive; not graded (not comparative or superlative).First known use first attested around 1350 to 1470

      Even when the absolute form of an adverb ends in -ly, the comparative and superlative are identical with the corresponding forms of the adjective: badly, worse, worst.

      1991, English Grammar, 3rd edition

   5. grammarHaving no direct object, like "kill" in "if looks could kill".First known use first attested around 1350 to 1470
   6. grammarBeing or pertaining to an inflected verb that is not preceded by any number of particles or compounded with a preverb.First known use first attested around 1350 to 1470

      Antonyms: conjunct

10. mathematicsAs measured using an absolute value.

    absolute square

    2 more examples

    absolute deviation

    mean absolute difference

11. mathematicsIndicating an expression that is true for all real numbers, or of all values of the variable; unconditional.
12. educationPertaining to a grading system based on the knowledge of the individual and not on the comparative knowledge of the group of students.
13. artIndependent of (references to) other arts; expressing things (beauty, ideas, etc) only in one art.

    absolute music

14. formalpostpositionallawIndicating that a tenure or estate in land is not conditional or liable to terminate on (strictly) any occurrence or (sometimes contextually) certain kinds of occurrence.

    A freehold property is an estate in fee simple absolute in possession.

15. obsoleteAbsolved; free.First known use attested from the mid 1300s until the mid 1600s

plural absolutes · alternative abs. · alternative absolut

1. That which exists (or has a certain property, nature, size, etc) independent of references to other standards or external conditions; that which is universally valid; that which is not relative, conditional, qualified or mitigated.First known use First attested in the mid 19ᵗʰ century.

   moral absolutes

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   There is a well-known generalization that human rights come before property rights. […] Unqualified absolutes like these do not contain the truth as tested by human experience. What we do say is that human rights and property rights are related to one another, are intertwined with one another, work with and play upon one another.

   1944, United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs, World Freedom of Press and Radio, Editorials Submitted...: Senate Concurrent Resolution 50, Senate Concurrent Resolution 52, Senate Concurrent Resolution 53, House Concurrent Resolution 97, page 30

   But if the psychoanalytic mood seems gloomy or pretentious, one may merely think of Anna as a person who comes to deal in absolutes: unconditional demands, total fears, extremities of power and subservience, […]

   1987, Harold Bloom, Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, Chelsea House Pub

   Notice the use of unconditional absolutes in each of these statements. They are the words always, never, and forever. The illusion of absolutes is the ultimate pathological double bind. Yet the only absolute is that there are no absolutes.

   2002, Jordan Zarren, MSW, DAHB; Jordan I. Zarren; Bruce N. Eimer, Brief Cognitive Hypnosis: Facilitating the Change of Dysfunctional Behavior, Springer Publishing Company, →ISBN, page 97

   This is important to understand, for when we see that the knowledge of good and evil is an absolute, we realize we can have absolutely no say in what it is or is not. Pause for a moment and consider that. Mathematicians work in absolutes.

   2010, Joshua K. Hildebrandt, The Knowledge of Good and Evil: Who Decides What Is Morally Right and Wrong?, AuthorHouse, →ISBN, page 9

   The reason is that we are confronted here with a genuine moral dilemma, i.e. a clash of two moral absolutes – the unconditional right to protection of the fetus from the point of fertilization; and the unconditional protection of the right to choose of the pregnant woman.

   2010, Klaus Brinkmann, Idealism Without Limits: Hegel and the Problem of Objectivity, Springer Science & Business Media, →ISBN, page 265

2. geometryIn a plane, the two imaginary circular points at infinity; in space of three dimensions, the imaginary circle at infinity.
3. capitalizedusuallyusually preceded by "the"human sciencesA realm which exists without reference to anything else; that which can be imagined purely by itself; absolute ego.

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

   1983, Lawrence Durrell, Sebastian (Avignon Quintet), Faber & Faber, published 2004, page 1039

4. capitalizedusuallyusually preceded by "the"human sciencesThe whole of reality; the totality to which everything is reduced; the unity of spirit and nature; God.
5. chemistryA concentrated natural flower oil, used for perfumes; an alcoholic extract of a concrete.

   The main difference between these and those of indifferent quality is that the former contain flower absolutes in fairly large proportion and the latter either an insignificant quantity or […]

   2019, William A. Poucher, Perfumes, Cosmetics and Soaps: The Production, Manufacture and Application of Perfumes: Volume 2, →ISBN, page 57

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   Complete concentration in a vacuum still at low temperature results in a concentrated flower oil, free from alcohol, the so-called absolute of enfleurage. The crude absolutes of enfleurage are usually of dark color and, because of their fat content, […]

   1948, Ernest Guenther, The Essential Oils: History, origin in plants, production, analysis

plural Absolutes

1. human sciencesThat which is totally unconditioned, unrestricted, pure, perfect, or complete; that which can be thought of without relation to others.First known use First attested in the mid 19ᵗʰ century.