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Absolute

//ˈæb.səˌlut// adj, noun

Definitions

Adjective

1
Free of restrictions, limitations, qualifications or conditions; unconditional.
"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 [...]"
2
Free of restrictions, limitations, qualifications or conditions; unconditional.; 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."
3
Free of restrictions, limitations, qualifications or conditions; unconditional.; Unrestricted by laws, a constitution, or parliamentary or judicial or other checks; (legally) unlimited in power, especially if despotic.; Characteristic of an absolutist ruler: domineering, peremptory.
"The peddler stopped, and tapped her on the head, / With absolute forefinger, brown and ringed."
4
Free from imperfection, perfect, complete; especially, perfectly embodying a quality in its essential characteristics or to its highest degree.
"absolute purity, absolute liberty"
5
Pure, free from mixture or adulteration; unmixed.
"absolute alcohol"

Show 19 more definitions

6
Complete, utter, outright; unmitigated, not qualified or diminished in any way.
"an absolute denial of all charges"
7
Positive, certain; unquestionable; not in doubt.
"Yet if the register is not to be absolute evidence of proprietorship, it is clear that some investigation of title would still be necessary."
8
Certain; free from doubt or uncertainty (e.g. a person, opinion or prediction). archaic
"I am absolute ’twas very Cloten."
9
Fundamental, ultimate, intrinsic; not relative; independent of references or relations to other things or standards. especially
"the doctrine that absolute knowledge of things is possible; an absolute principle"
10
Independent of arbitrary units of measurement, standards, or properties; not comparative or relative.
"absolute velocity, absolute motion, absolute position"
11
Independent of arbitrary units of measurement, standards, or properties; not comparative or relative.; Having reference to or derived in the simplest manner from the fundamental units of mass, time, and length.
12
Independent of arbitrary units of measurement, standards, or properties; not comparative or relative.; Relating to the absolute temperature scale (based on absolute zero); kelvin.
13
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".; Syntactically 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.
14
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".; Lacking a modified substantive, like "hungry" in "feed the hungry".
15
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".; Expressing a relative term without a definite comparison, like "older" in "an older person should be treated with respect".
16
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".; Positive; not graded (not comparative or superlative).
"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."
17
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".; Having no direct object, like "kill" in "if looks could kill".
18
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".; Being or pertaining to an inflected verb that is not preceded by any number of particles or compounded with a preverb.
19
As measured using an absolute value.
"absolute deviation"
20
Indicating an expression that is true for all real numbers, or of all values of the variable; unconditional.
21
Pertaining to a grading system based on the knowledge of the individual and not on the comparative knowledge of the group of students.
22
Independent of (references to) other arts; expressing things (beauty, ideas, etc) only in one art.
"absolute music"
23
Indicating 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. formal, postpositional
"A freehold property is an estate in fee simple absolute in possession."
24
Absolved; free. obsolete

Adjective

1
perfect or complete or pure wordnet
2
not capable of being violated or infringed wordnet
3
complete and without restriction or qualification; sometimes used informally as intensifiers wordnet
4
not limited by law wordnet
5
expressing finality with no implication of possible change wordnet

Noun

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.
"moral absolutes"
2
That which is totally unconditioned, unrestricted, pure, perfect, or complete; that which can be thought of without relation to others.
3
something that is conceived or that exists independently and not in relation to other things; something that does not depend on anything else and is beyond human control; something that is not relative wordnet
4
In a plane, the two imaginary circular points at infinity; in space of three dimensions, the imaginary circle at infinity.
5
A realm which exists without reference to anything else; that which can be imagined purely by itself; absolute ego. capitalized, usually
"Withdrawn as a Buddha he sat, watching the alien world from his perch in the absolute."

Show 2 more definitions

6
The whole of reality; the totality to which everything is reduced; the unity of spirit and nature; God. capitalized, usually
7
A concentrated natural flower oil, used for perfumes; an alcoholic extract of a concrete.
"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, […]"

Etymology

Etymology 1

First attested around 1380. From Middle English absolut, from Middle French absolut, from Latin absolūtus (“unconditional; unfettered; completed”), perfect passive participle of absolvō (“loosen, set free, complete”), from ab (“away”) + solvo (“to loose”). Influenced in part by Old French absolu. Compare absolve.

Etymology 2

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