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abstract

(ăb-străkt', ăb'străkt') pronunciation

adj.

Considered apart from concrete existence: an abstract concept.
Not applied or practical; theoretical. See synonyms at theoretical.
Difficult to understand; abstruse: abstract philosophical problems.
Thought of or stated without reference to a specific instance: abstract words like truth and justice.
Impersonal, as in attitude or views.
Having an intellectual and affective artistic content that depends solely on intrinsic form rather than on narrative content or pictorial representation: abstract painting and sculpture.

n. (ăb'străkt')

A statement summarizing the important points of a text.
Something abstract.

tr.v., -stract·ed, -stract·ing, -stracts. (ăb-străkt')

To take away; remove.
To remove without permission; filch.
To consider (a quality, for example) without reference to a particular example or object.
(ăb'străkt') To summarize; epitomize.
To create artistic abstractions of (something else, such as a concrete object or another style): “The Bauhaus Functionalists were . . . busy unornamenting and abstracting modern architecture, painting and design” (John Barth).

[Middle English, from Latin abstractus, past participle of abstrahere, to draw away : abs-, ab-, away; see ab–¹ + trahere, to draw.]

abstracter ab·stract'er n.
abstractly ab·stract'ly adv.
abstractness ab·stract'ness n.

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Library

Thesaurus: abstract

adjective

Existing only in concept and not in reality: hypothetic, hypothetical, ideal, theoretic, theoretical, transcendent, transcendental. See real/imaginary.
Concerned primarily with theories rather than practical matters: academic, speculative, theoretic, theoretical. See thoughts.

noun

verb

To remove from association with: detach, disassociate, disengage, dissociate, withdraw. See assemble/disassemble.
To give a recapitulation of the salient facts of: epitomize, go over, recapitulate, review, run down, run through, summarize, sum up, synopsize, wrap up. Informal recap. See thoughts.

Antonyms: abstract

adj

Definition: conceptual, theoretical
Antonyms: actual, concrete, factual, material, objective, physical, real

n

Definition: short document prepared from a longer one
Antonyms: document, manuscript

v

Definition: prepare short document from longer one
Antonyms: complete, expand, insert, lengthen, strengthen

v

Definition: take away from
Antonyms: add, combine, fill, insert, introduce, unite

Law Encyclopedia: Abstract

This entry contains information applicable to United States law only.

To take or withdraw from; as, to abstract the funds of a bank. To remove or separate. To summarize or abridge.

An abstract comprises — or concentrates in itself — the essential qualities of a larger thing— or of several things — in a short, abbreviated form. It differs from a transcript, which is a verbatim copy of the thing itself and is more comprehensive.

See: abstract of title.

Literary Glossary: Abstract

Used as a noun, the term refers to a short summary or outline of a longer work. As an adjective applied to writing or literary works, abstract refers to words or phrases that name things not knowable through the five senses. Examples of abstracts include the Cliffs Notes summaries of major literary works. Examples of abstract terms or concepts include "idea," "guilt" "honesty," and "loyalty".

Word Tutor: abstract

IN BRIEF: Idealized; apart from a particular thing.

Picasso's work was abstract and sometimes hard to understand.

Tutor's tip: An "abstract" is a summary or synopsis, while to "obstruct" means to block or shut out.

Wikipedia: abstract (summary)

It has been suggested that Abstract management be merged into this article or section. (Discuss)

An abstract is a brief summary of a research article, thesis, review, conference proceeding or any in-depth analysis of a particular subject or discipline, and is often used to help the reader quickly ascertain the paper's purpose. When used, an abstract always appears at the beginning of a manuscript, acting as the point-of-entry for any given scientific paper or patent application. Abstraction and indexing services are available for a number of academic disciplines, aimed at compiling a body of literature for that particular subject.

Academic abstracts

The abstract of a thesis or article is a short summary that explains the main argument(s), topic(s) or findings. In theses, the abstract normally appears before the table of contents.

In scientific literature

Scientific literature takes widespread advantage of the abstract as the abbreviated style of choice in order to aptly communicate complex research. In science, an abstract may act as a stand-alone entity in lieu of the paper as well. As such, an abstract is used by many organizations as the basis for selecting research that is proposed for presentation in the form of a poster, podium/lecture, or workshop presentation at an academic conference. Most literature database search engines index abstracts only as opposed to providing the entire text of the paper. Full-texts of scientific papers must often be purchased because of copyright and/or publisher fees, and therefore the abstract is a significant selling point for the reprint or electronic version of the full-text.

Abstracts are not public domain or open-source unless stated by the publisher. Therefore, abstracts are afforded protections under copyright law in many states just as any other form of written speech is protected. However, publishers of scientific articles invariably make abstracts publicly available, even when the article itself is protected by a toll barrier. For example, articles in the biomedical literature are available publicly from MEDLINE which is accessible through PubMed. It is a common misconception that the abstracts in MEDLINE provide sufficient information for medical practitioners, students, scholars and patients. The abstract can convey the main results and conclusions of a scientific article but the full text article must be consulted for details of the methodology, the full experimental results, and a critical discussion of the interpretations and conclusions. Consulting the abstract alone is inadequate for scholarship and may lead to inappropriate medical decisions.

Abstract length varies by discipline and publisher requirements. Typical length ranges from 100 to 500 words, but very rarely more than a page. An abstract may or may not have the section title of "abstract" explicitly listed as an antecedent to content, however, they are typically sectioned logically as an overview of what appears in the paper (e.g. any one of the following: Background, Introduction, Objectives, Methods, Results, Conclusions).

In journal articles, research papers, published patent applications and patents, an abstract is a short summary placed prior to the introduction, often set apart from the body of the text, sometimes with different line justification (as a block or pull quote) from the rest of the article.

An abstract allows one to sift through copious amounts of papers for ones in which the researcher can have more confidence that they will be relevant to his research. Abstracts help one decide which papers might be relevant to his or her own research. Once papers are chosen based on the abstract, they must be read carefully to be evaluated for relevance. It is commonly surmised that one must not base reference citations on the abstract alone, but the entire merits of a paper.

Example

Example taken from the Journal of Biology, Volume 3, Issue 2. The electronic version of this article is listed as Open Access as of March 30 2005, and can be found online at: http://jbiol.com/content/3/2/8:

The hydrodynamics of dolphin drafting by Daniel Weihs, Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa 32000, Israel. Abstract: Background Drafting in cetaceans is defined as the transfer of forces between individuals without actual physical contact between them. This behavior has long been surmised to explain how young dolphin calves keep up with their rapidly moving mothers. It has recently been observed that a significant number of calves become permanently separated from their mothers during chases by tuna vessels. A study of the hydrodynamics of drafting, initiated in the hope of understanding the mechanisms causing the separation of mothers and calves during fishing-related activities, is reported here. Results Quantitative results are shown for the forces and moments around a pair of unequally sized dolphin-like slender bodies. These include two major effects. First, the so-called Bernoulli suction, which stems from the fact that the local pressure drops in areas of high speed, results in an attractive force between mother and calf. Second is the displacement effect, in which the motion of the mother causes the water in front to move forwards and radially outwards, and water behind the body to move forwards to replace the animal's mass. Thus, the calf can gain a 'free ride' in the forward-moving areas. Utilizing these effects, the neonate can gain up to 90% of the thrust needed to move alongside the mother at speeds of up to 2.4 m/s. A comparison with observations of eastern spinner dolphins (Stenella longirostris) is presented, showing savings of up to 60% in the thrust that calves require if they are to keep up with their mothers. Conclusions A theoretical analysis, backed by observations of free-swimming dolphin schools, indicates that hydrodynamic interactions with mothers play an important role in enabling dolphin calves to keep up with rapidly moving adult school members.
© 2004 Weihs; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article: verbatim copying and redistribution of this article are permitted in all media for any purpose, provided this notice is preserved along with the article's original URL

Graphical abstracts

Recently, due to the influence of computer storage and retrieval systems such as the Internet, many scientific publications have started including graphical abstracts alongside the text abstracts. The graphic is intended to summarize or be an examplar for the main thrust of the article. It is not intended to be as exhaustive a summary as the text abstract, rather it is supposed to indicate the type, scope, and technical coverage of the article at a glance.

Ελληνική (Greek)
v. - αφαιρώ, αποσπώ, ιδιοποιούμαι, υπεξαιρώ, συνοψίζω, κάνω περίληψη, περικόβω
n. - αφηρημένη έννοια, έργο αφηρημένης τέχνης, (γραμμ.) αφηρημένο ουσιαστικό, (χημ.) απόσταγμα
adj. - αφηρημένος (μη συγκεκριμένος), θεωρητικός, μη εφαρμόσιμος, (μαθημ., γραμμ.) αφηρημένος, (στις τέχνες) αφηρημένος, ανεικονικός

idioms:

abstract from αφαιρώ, υπεξαιρώ
in the abstract θεωρητικά

Italiano (Italian)
astrarre, fare astrazione da, riassumere, sottrarre, rubare (fam.), rimuovere, separare (tecn.), riassunto, compendio, astratto

idioms:

abstract from estrarre da
in the abstract astrattamente

Português (Portuguese)
v. - resumir, separar, abstrair, subtrair, desviar a atenção
n. - extrato (m), resumo (m), abstração (f)
adj. - abstrato, teórico

idioms:

abstract from extrair de
in the abstract por si só, na teoria

Русский (Russian)
отнимать, отделять, абстрагировать, абстракция, резюме, абстрактный

idioms:

abstract from отвлекаться от чего-либо, резюмировать
in the abstract отдельно, вне связи с конкретным человеком или предметом

Español (Spanish)
adj. - abstracto, ideal, impersonal, difícil
v. tr. - abstraer, extraer, resumir, hacer caso omiso de
n. - abstracto, resumen, extracto, abstracción, cuadro abstracto

idioms:

abstract away from abstraer, quitar
abstract from resumir de, sacar de, extraer, robar
abstract oneself abstraerse, concentrarse, retraerse
in the abstract abstractamente, en abstracto

Svenska (Swedish)
v. - abstrahera, göra sammandrag
n. - abstrakt, sammandrag
adj. - abstrakt, teoretisk

中文（简体） (Chinese (Simplified))
抽象的, 纯理论的, 深奥的, 使抽象化, 提炼, 摘要, 梗概, 抽象概念, 萃取物

idioms:

abstract from 摘录...的要点, 做摘要
in the abstract 抽象地, 理论上

中文（繁體） (Chinese (Traditional))
adj. - 抽象的, 純理論的, 深奧的
v. tr. - 使抽象化, 提煉, 摘要
n. - 梗概, 摘要, 抽象概念, 萃取物

idioms:

abstract from 摘錄...的要點, 做摘要
in the abstract 抽象地, 理論上

한국어 (Korean)
adj. - 추상적인, 난해한, 얼빠진, 무명의, 추상파의
v. tr. - 추상하다, 추출하다, 훔치다, 분리하다, 발췌하다
n. - 추상[적 개념], 추상명사

idioms:

abstract from (주의를)돌리다
in the abstract 이론적으로

日本語 (Japanese)
adj. - 抽象的な, 抽象主義の, 理論的な, 純粋な
n. - 抽象したもの, 要約
v. - 引き離す, 抽出する

idioms:

abstract from 分離する, 抽出する
in the abstract 抽象的には

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(فعل) ملخص, يفصل (الاسم) خلاصه (صفه) مثالي, تجريدي, نظري‏

עברית (Hebrew)
adj. - ‮מופשט, אבסטרקטי‬
v. tr. - ‮קיצר, תמצת, הוציא, הפריד, גנב‬
n. - ‮תמצית, קיצור, סיכום תוכנו של ספר וכו', יצירה אמנותית מופשטת‬

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Copyrights:

		Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more
		Thesaurus. Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary Copyright © 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more
		Antonyms. © 1999-2008 by Answers Corporation. All rights reserved. Read more
		Law Encyclopedia. West's Encyclopedia of American Law. Copyright © 1998 by The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more
		Literary Glossary. © 2006 through a partnership of Answers Corporation. All rights reserved. Read more
		Word Tutor. Copyright © 2004-present by eSpindle Learning, a 501(c) nonprofit organization. All rights reserved. eSpindle provides personalized spelling and vocabulary tutoring online; free trial. Read more
		Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Abstract (summary)". Read more
		Translations. Copyright © 2007, WizCom Technologies Ltd. All rights reserved. Read more

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abstract

Academic abstracts

In scientific literature

Example

Graphical abstracts

See also

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