What does "concrete" mean?
A building material created by mixing cement, water, and aggregate such as gravel and sand.
Concrete
/ˈkɒnkɹiːt/ adj, noun, verb
adj, noun, verb ·Very common ·Middle school level
Meaning at a glance
- Primary sense: A building material created by mixing cement, water, and aggregate such as gravel and sand.
- Grammar: concrete is listed as adj, noun, verb.
- Nearest alternatives: absolute, actual, actual world, actualizing.
- Useful contrasts: generic, abstract, abstract descriptor.
- Usage evidence: Our plans are not yet concrete.
How to use "concrete"
- Start with the primary definition, then check the part of speech before placing the word in a sentence.
- Compare nearby synonyms to make sure "concrete" carries the exact meaning, tone, and strength you need.
- Use the example sentence as a context check. If your sentence uses the word differently, confirm that the grammar still fits.
Meaning check
- Does the word fit the sentence's grammar?
- Does it match the intended tone rather than only the dictionary definition?
- Would a simpler synonym be clearer for the reader?
- Is there enough surrounding context to prevent ambiguity?
Source and review context
This entry combines structured lexical data with WordToolSet review checks. Definitions, examples, synonyms, and usage notes may come from different source tables, so the page is designed to show evidence from more than one angle before you rely on "concrete" in a final draft.
If a word has several senses, prefer the sense that matches your sentence's grammar and surrounding context. A correct definition can still be the wrong choice when the sentence needs a different register, emphasis, or level of specificity.
Before you rely on this definition
Read the first definition as a starting point, then check the example, synonyms, and part of speech before treating "concrete" as the right word for your sentence.
If your draft is formal, technical, persuasive, or sensitive, compare "concrete" with a nearby alternative so the final choice matches both meaning and reader expectation.
Compare nearby meanings
- Use synonyms when you need a softer, stronger, simpler, or more specific word.
- Use antonyms to check the boundary of the meaning and avoid accidental contrast.
- Use the example sentence to confirm the word behaves naturally in context.
- Keep the original wording when a replacement adds complexity without improving precision.
Definition decision workflow
1. Identify the role
Check whether "concrete" is acting as adj, noun, verb in your sentence. A definition is only useful when the grammar matches the way the word is being used.
2. Test the nearest option
Compare it with "absolute" and other nearby choices to see whether the sentence needs a softer, stronger, or more familiar word.
3. Confirm with context
Use the example sentence below as an evidence check, then read your own sentence out loud to catch tone or rhythm problems.
Review note: Definition pages are checked for source coverage, sentence evidence, synonym support, and editorial insight before they are treated as approval-ready pages. If the evidence is too thin, the page remains available to users but is kept out of the approval-facing indexed inventory.
Final meaning check
Before publishing a sentence with "concrete", ask whether the word helps the reader understand the idea faster. A precise word should reduce confusion, not simply make the sentence look more polished.
When the definition, synonym evidence, and example context point in the same direction, the word is usually a safer choice. When they conflict, revise the sentence or choose a clearer alternative.
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A building material created by mixing cement, water, and aggregate such as gravel and sand. countable, uncountable
"Various types of concrete have been used in the construction of this highway."
- 2 a strong hard building material composed of sand and gravel and cement and water wordnet
- 3 A building material created by mixing cement, water, and aggregate such as gravel and sand.; Such a material whose cement is Portland cement or a similar limestone derivative. countable, especially, uncountable
"The sidewalk was made of concrete that had been poured in large slabs."
- 4 A term designating both a quality and the subject in which it exists; a concrete term. countable, uncountable
"Whence follows, that the Abſtract Terms, [Entity] or [Eſſence] do properly ſignify [A Capacity of Being.] Tho' Entity is often us'd as a Concrete for the Thing it ſelf."
- 5 A dessert of frozen custard with various toppings. US, countable, uncountable
"When Nudger and Claudia were finished eating they drove to the Ted Drewes frozen custard stand on Chippewa and stood in line for a couple of chocolate chip concretes. Drewes's concretes were delicious custard concoctions so thick that before the kids working behind the counter handed them to customers, they turned the cups upside down to demonstrate that the contents wouldn't pour out."
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- 6 An extract of herbal materials that has a semi-solid consistency, especially when such materials are partly aromatic. countable, uncountable
"Most concretes contain about 50 per cent wax, 50 per cent volatile oil, such as jasmine; in rare cases, as with ylang ylang, the concrete is liquid and contains about 80 per cent essential oil, 20 per cent wax. The advantage of concretes is that they are more stable and concentrated than pure essential oils."
- 7 Sugar boiled down from cane juice to a solid mass. countable, obsolete, possibly, uncountable
"The concrete is made by ingredients which are to remove the feculencies from the cane-juice as soon as expressed from the mill and which check fermentation; indeed juice may be kept for a week after the canes have been gruond, without turning acid, when these ingredients have been used."
- 8 Any solid mass formed by the coalescence of separate particles; a compound substance, a concretion. countable, obsolete, uncountable
"And firſt, if I would now deal rigidly with my Adverſary, I might here make a great Queſtion of the very way of Probation which he and others employ, without the leaſt ſcruple, to evince, that the Bodies commonly cali'd mixt, are made up of Earth, Air, Water, and Fire, which they are pleas'd alſo to call Elements; namely that upon the ſuppos'd Analyſis made by the fire, of the former ſort of Concretes, there are wont to emerge Bodies reſembling thoſe which they take for the Elements."
Verb
- 1 To cover with or encase in concrete (building material). transitive, usually
"I hate grass, so I concreted over my lawn."
- 2 form into a solid mass; coalesce wordnet
- 3 To solidify: to change from being abstract to being concrete (actual, real). transitive, usually
"[…] the necessity of recognizing this relation outwardly and of perfecting herself in the forms required to express the recognition, had moved her to such diligence and faithfulness in practicing these forms that this exercise soon concreted itself into habit; it became automatic and unconscious; then a natural result followed: […]"
- 4 cover with cement wordnet
- 5 To unite or coalesce into a solid mass. archaic, intransitive
"When any ſaline Liquor is evaporated to a Cuticle and let cool, the Salt concretes in regular Figures; which argues, that the Particles of the Salt before they concreted, floated in the Liquor at equal diſtances in rank and file, and by conſequence that they acted upon one another by ſome Power which at equal diſtances is equal, at unequal diſtances unequal."
Adjective
- 1 Real, actual, tangible.
"Fuzzy videotapes and distorted sound recordings are not concrete evidence that Bigfoot exists."
- 2 Real, actual, tangible.; Analogous to the categories of algebraic objects which category theory was created to generalize, in the sense of having objects which can be thought of as sets equipped with some additional structure. Formally, equipped with a faithful functor to the category of sets.
- 3 Real, actual, tangible.; Equipped with a faithful functor to X (called a base category), in which case C is called a concrete category over X. broadly
- 4 Being or applying to actual things, rather than abstract qualities or categories.
"Concrete Terms, while they expreſs the Quality, do alſo either expreſs, or imply, or refer to ſome Subject to which it belongs; as white, round, long, broad, wiſe, mortal, living, dead."
- 5 Particular, specific, rather than general.
"While everyone else offered thoughts and prayers, she made a concrete proposal to help."
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- 6 Made of concrete (building material). not-comparable
"The office building had concrete flower boxes out front."
- 7 Made up of separate parts; composite. obsolete
"I cannot wholly expreſs him, I wot not what to call him, but a certain thing altogether made of the hatred of God, of miſtruſt in God, of wings, deceits, diſcord, manſlaughters, and in a word, a thing concrete and heaped up of perjuries, and made of all kind of miſchief."
- 8 Not liquid or fluid; solid. obsolete
"Ere the white body they could reach; and stuck, as telling how / They purpos'd to have pierc'd his flesh: his peril pierced now / The eyes of prince Eurypilus, Evemon's famous son; Who came close on, and with his dart struck duke Apisaon, / Whose surname was Phausiades, even to the concrete blood / That makes the liver: on the earth out gush'd his vital flood."
Adjective
- 1 capable of being perceived by the senses; not abstract or imaginary wordnet
- 2 formed by the coalescence of particles wordnet
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
"Our plans are not yet concrete."
Common questions
What is a synonym for "concrete"?
Common synonyms include: absolute, actual, actual world, actualizing, adamant, adobe.
How do you use "concrete" in a sentence?
Our plans are not yet concrete.
How do you pronounce "concrete"?
Pronounced /ˈkɒnkɹiːt/.
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin concrētus, past participle of concrescō (to curdle) from con- (with, together) + crescō (to grow, rise).