# absolute

Pronunciation: say "AB-suh-loot" US /ˈæb.səˌlut/, UK /ˈæb.sə.luːt/

## Adjective

1. Complete, total, and outright; not lessened or qualified in any way, often expressing a quality to the highest degree.
   - Simple: Complete and total, with nothing less or missing. Used to say something is as great as it can be.
   - _Her performance earned the absolute admiration of every judge in the hall._
   - _The newsroom fell into absolute chaos after the announcement._
2. Free from restrictions, limitations, or conditions; unconditional, as of a right, or of ownership of land that no condition can bring to an end.
   - Simple: Without any limits or conditions, like a right, or ownership of land that nothing can end.
   - _In most countries, free speech is not an absolute right; some limits still apply._
   - _Members keep absolute freedom to leave the club whenever they wish._
3. Independent of arbitrary units, standards, or properties; not comparative or relative.
   - Simple: Measured on its own, not compared to anything else.
   - _Engineers reported the absolute pressure inside the sealed chamber._
   - _Absolute humidity measures the actual mass of water vapor in a volume of air._
4. Unrestricted by laws, a constitution, or other checks; holding legally unlimited power, especially of a despotic kind.
   - Simple: Having complete power, with no laws or rules to limit it.
   - _Louis XIV governed France as an absolute monarch for over fifty years._
   - _The general demanded absolute authority over every branch of the state._
5. Existing or true in itself, without depending on or being measured against anything else; basic and ultimate.
   - Simple: Not depending on or compared to anything else, but standing on its own.
   - _Philosophers debate whether moral values are absolute or shaped by culture._
   - _He claimed that beauty has no absolute standard._
6. In mathematics, measured using an absolute value: that is, as a magnitude without regard to sign.
   - Simple: In math, measured as a size without a plus or minus sign.
   - _The model's absolute error stayed below two percent across all trials._
   - _Researchers compared the absolute difference between predicted and observed values._
7. Beyond question; so certain that no doubt remains.
   - Simple: Completely sure and not in doubt.
   - _The video footage is absolute proof that the referee made the wrong call._
   - _The fingerprint match was absolute, so the detectives stopped questioning the other suspects._
8. Relating to the temperature scale based on absolute zero; measured in kelvin.
   - Simple: About the temperature scale that starts at the coldest possible point.
   - _Scientists record the gas's temperature on the absolute scale, starting from absolute zero._
   - _On the absolute scale, comfortable room temperature is roughly 293 kelvin._
10. Undiluted and wholly pure, with no other substance mixed in.
   - Simple: Pure and not mixed with anything else.
   - _The lab uses absolute alcohol because it contains no water at all._
   - _Only absolute ethanol, free of water, would dissolve the powder._
13. Derived in the simplest way from the fundamental units of mass, time, and length.
   - Simple: Based directly on the basic units of mass, time, and length.
   - _The dyne is a unit of force in the absolute CGS system._
   - _Older textbooks express measurements in absolute units derived from mass, length, and time._
14. Of a grading system: based on each student's own knowledge rather than on how they compare with the rest of the group.
   - Simple: Describing grading that judges each student by what they know, not by comparing them with others.
   - _The school switched to absolute grading, so a mark reflects only what each student has mastered._
   - _Under an absolute system, every student who meets the standard can earn top marks._
15. In mathematics, describing an expression that is true for all values of the variable; unconditional.
   - Simple: In math, true for every possible value, not just some.
16. Of an art form: independent of other arts, expressing beauty or ideas through a single medium alone.
   - Simple: Describing art that stands on its own, without telling a story or leaning on other art forms.
   - _Critics praised the symphony as absolute, owing nothing to text or staging._
   - _The composer wrote absolute music, with no story or poem behind it._
17. Of a word or phrase: connected to the rest of the sentence in an unusual way, or standing apart from it, as in a nominative or ablative absolute.
   - Simple: In grammar, describing a phrase that stands apart from the rest of the sentence.
   - _In "the votes counted, the chair announced the result," the opening phrase is absolute._
   - _An absolute construction modifies the whole clause rather than a single word._

## Noun

9. Something that exists or holds independent of other standards or conditions; that which is universally valid and not relative or qualified.
   - Simple: Something that is always true and does not depend on anything else.
   - _She argued that justice is an absolute, valid everywhere and for everyone._
   - _Moral absolutes leave no room for exceptions._
11. In philosophy, the Absolute: ultimate reality that exists and can be conceived purely by itself, the whole to which everything is reduced, often identified with God.
   - Simple: In philosophy, the one complete reality that depends on nothing else, sometimes thought of as God.
   - _Hegel understood history as the gradual unfolding of the Absolute._
   - _In Hegel's system the Absolute embraces all of reality, reconciling spirit and nature._
12. A concentrated, highly aromatic oil extracted from flowers and used in perfumery; an alcohol extract of a concrete.
   - Simple: A strong-smelling oil taken from flowers and used to make perfume.
   - _The perfumer blended a little jasmine absolute into the heart of the fragrance._
   - _A few drops of rose absolute scented the whole workroom._

## Adjective

18. Absolved; freed from blame, guilt, or obligation. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: Set free, with nothing held against you.

## Other meanings

- (adjective) Domineering and commanding, in the manner of a ruler who recognizes no limits on their own power.
- (adjective) Of an adjective, used without the noun it would normally modify.
- (adjective) Of a verb, used without a direct object.
- (adjective) Of a comparative term: used without a definite point of comparison, as "older" in "an older person should be treated with respect."
- (adjective) Of an adjective or adverb, in its basic positive form, neither comparative nor superlative.
- (adjective) Of an inflected verb: not preceded by particles or joined to a preverb, standing in its bare form.
- (noun) In geometry, the imaginary pair of circular points at infinity in a plane, or the imaginary circle at infinity in three-dimensional space.

## Origin

First attested around 1380, absolute came through Middle English and Middle French from Latin absolūtus ("unconditional; unfettered; completed"), the perfect passive participle of absolvō ("loosen, set free, complete"), formed from ab ("away") and solvo ("to loose"). It was also influenced by Old French absolu.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/absolute (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).