English
absolute
see also: Absolute
Etymology

First attested around 1380. From Middle English absolut, from Middle French absolut, from Latin absolūtus, perfect passive participle of absolvō ("loosen, set free, complete"), from ab ("away") + solvo ("to loose").

Pronunciation
  • (British) IPA: /ˈæb.sə.luːt/, /æb.səˈluːt/, /ˈæp-/, /ˈæb.sə.ljuːt/
    • (Standard Southern British) IPA: /ˈap.sə.lʉʊt/, /ˈab-/
  • (America) IPA: /ˈæb.səˌlut/, /ˌæb.səˈlut/
Adjective

absolute

  1. Free of restrictions, limitations, qualifications or conditions; unconditional. [first attested in the late 1400s]
    • 1658, Samuel Hoard, God[']s Love to Mankind, Manifested, by disprooving his absolute decree for their damnation:
    • 2005, Names, volume 53, page 238:
      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 [...]
    1. Unrestricted by laws, a constitution, or parliamentary or judicial or other checks; (legally) unlimited in power, especially if despotic. [first attested in the late 1400s]
      • 1846, George Gillespie, The Presbyterian's Armoury:
        An absolute monarch is free from all forcible restraint, and so far as he is absolute[,] from all legal restraints of positive laws.
      1. Characteristic of an absolutist ruler: domineering, peremptory. [first attested in the mid 1500s]
        • 1856, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Aurora Leigh:
          The peddler stopped, and tapped her on the head, / With absolute forefinger, brown and ringed.
        • 1962, Hannah Arendt, On Revolution, published 1990, page 155:
          […] the more absolute the ruler, the more absolute the revolution will be which replaces him.
  2. Free from imperfection, perfect, complete; especially, perfectly embodying a quality in its essential characteristics or to its highest degree. [first attested around 1400]
    absolute purity, absolute liberty
    • 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 ↗:
      So absolute she seems, / And in herself complete.
  3. Pure, free from mixture or adulteration; unmixed. [first attested in the mid 1500s]
    absolute alcohol
  4. Complete, utter, outright; unmitigated, not qualified or diminished in any way. [first attested in the late 1500s]
    an absolute denial of all charges
    When caught, he told an absolute lie.
    You're an absolute genius!
  5. (very, occasionally, postpositive) Positive, certain; unquestionable; not in doubt. [first attested in the early 1600s]
    • 1862, The Solicitors' Journal and Reporter, volume 6, page 365:
      Yet if the register is not to be absolute evidence of proprietorship, it is clear that some investigation of title would still be necessary.
    • 1913, International Record of Medicine and General Practice Clinics:
      [...] 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.
    • 2021, HM Land Registry Practice Guide 26:
      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 [...]
  6. (archaic) Certain; free from doubt or uncertainty (e.g. a person, opinion or prediction). [first attested in the early 1600s]
    • 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]:
      I am absolute ’twas very Cloten.
    • 1856, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “(please specify either |book=1 to 9 or the page)”, in Aurora Leigh, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1857, →OCLC ↗:
      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.
  7. (especially, philosophy) Fundamental, ultimate, intrinsic; not relative; independent of references or relations to other things or standards. [first attested in the late 1700s]
    the doctrine that absolute knowledge of things is possible; an absolute principle
    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. (physics) Independent of arbitrary units of measurement, standards, or properties; not comparative or relative.
    absolute velocity, absolute motion, absolute position
    • 1903, Ice and Refrigeration, volume 24, page 49:
      His experiments led him to infer that the boiling point of the substance is probably below 9 degrees absolute.
    1. Having reference to or derived in the simplest manner from the fundamental units of mass, time, and length.
    2. Relating to the absolute temperature scale (based on absolute zero); kelvin.
  9. (grammar) 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". [first attested around 1350 to 1470]
    1. (of a case form) 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. [first attested around 1350 to 1470]
    2. (of an adjective or possessive pronoun) Lacking a modified substantive, like "hungry" in "feed the hungry". [first attested around 1350 to 1470]
    3. (of a, comparative or superlative) Expressing a relative term without a definite comparison, like "older" in "an older person should be treated with respect". [first attested around 1350 to 1470]
    4. (of an, adjective form) Positive; not graded (not comparative or superlative).
      • 1991, English Grammar, 3rd edition:
        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.
    5. (of a usually transitive verb) Having no direct object, like "kill" in "if looks could kill". [first attested around 1350 to 1470]
    6. (of Celtic languages) Being or pertaining to an inflected verb that is not preceded by any number of particles or compounded with a preverb.
      Antonyms: conjunct
  10. (math) As measured using an absolute value.
    absolute deviation
    absolute square
    mean absolute difference
  11. (math) Indicating an expression that is true for all real numbers, or of all values of the variable; unconditional.
  12. (education) Pertaining to a grading system based on the knowledge of the individual and not on the comparative knowledge of the group of students.
  13. (art, music, dance) Independent of (references to) other arts; expressing things (beauty, ideas, etc) only in one art.
    absolute music
  14. (law, postpositive, formal) 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.
    A freehold property is an estate in fee simple absolute in possession.
  15. (obsolete) Absolved; free. [attested from the mid 1300s until the mid 1600s]
Synonyms Antonyms
  • (antonym(s) of “free of restrictions, limitations, qualifications or conditions”): conditional, limited
  • (antonym(s) of “independent of references or relations to other things or standards”): relative, dependent
Related terms Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Noun

absolute (plural absolutes)

  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 attested in the mid 19th century.]
    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, usually capitalized, usually preceded by "the") A realm which exists without reference to anything else; that which can be imagined purely by itself; absolute ego.
  4. (philosophy, usually capitalized, usually preceded by "the") The whole of reality; the totality to which everything is reduced; the unity of spirit and nature; God.
  5. (chemistry) A concentrated natural flower oil, used for perfumes; an alcoholic extract of a concrete.
    • 1948, Ernest Guenther, The Essential Oils: History, origin in plants, production, analysis:
      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,  […]
Translations
Absolute
Pronunciation
  • (RP) IPA: /ˈæb.səˌluːt/
  • (America) IPA: /ˈæb.səˌlut/
Noun

absolute (plural absolutes)

  1. (philosophy) That which is totally unconditioned, unrestricted, pure, perfect, or complete; that which can be thought of without relation to others. [First attested in the mid 19th century.]


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