absolute

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. adj. Perfect in quality or nature; complete.
2. adj. Not mixed; pure. See Synonyms at pure.
3. adj. Not limited by restrictions or exceptions; unconditional: absolute trust.
4. adj. Unqualified in extent or degree; total: absolute silence. See Usage Note at infinite.
5. adj. Unconstrained by constitutional or other provisions: an absolute ruler.
6. adj. Not to be doubted or questioned; positive: absolute proof.
7. adj. Grammar Of, relating to, or being a word, phrase, or construction that is isolated syntactically from the rest of a sentence, as the referee having finally arrived in The referee having finally arrived, the game began.
8. adj. Grammar Of, relating to, or being a transitive verb when its object is implied but not stated. For example, inspires in We have a teacher who inspires is an absolute verb.
9. adj. Grammar Of, relating to, or being an adjective or pronoun that stands alone when the noun it modifies is being implied but not stated. For example, in Theirs were the best, theirs is an absolute pronoun and best is an absolute adjective.
10. adj. Physics Relating to measurements or units of measurement derived from fundamental units of length, mass, and time.
11. adj. Physics Relating to absolute temperature.
12. adj. Law Complete and unconditional; final.
13. n. Something that is absolute.
14. n. Philosophy Something regarded as the ultimate basis of all thought and being. Used with the.
15. n. Philosophy Something regarded as independent of and unrelated to anything else.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. Free from every restriction; unconditional: as, the only absolute necessity is logical necessity; absolute skepticism; absolute proof.
2. Perfect; complete; entire; possessed as a quality in the highest degree, or possessing the essential characteristics of the attribute named in the highest degree: as, absolute purity; absolute liberty.
3. Hence Perfect; free from imperfection: sometimes applied to persons.
4. Fixed; determined: not merely provisional; irrevocable.
5. Viewed independently of other similar things; not considered with reference to other similar things as standards; not comparative merely: opposed to relative: as, absolute position; absolute velocity (see below). [Careful writers, without an explanation, or unless the context makes the meaning clear, do not use the word in this sense; so that, though it has always belonged to the word, it is considered as secondary.]
6. Unlimited in certain essential respects; arbitrary; despotic: applied especially to a system of government in which the will of the sovereign is comparatively unhampered by laws or usage: as, an absolute monarchy.
7. Certain; infallible.
8. Domineering; peremptory; exacting strict obedience.
9. Ultimate; not derived from anything else: as, an absolute principle. Immeasurable; not definable by measurement; not led up to by insensible gradations: as, the distinction between right and wrong is absolute.
10. In grammar, standing out of the usual syntactical relation or construction: applied to the case of a noun and an adjunct in no relation of dependence upon the rest of the sentence, and defining the time or circumstances of an action: as, the genitive absolute in Greek, the ablative absolute in Latin, the locative absolute in Sanskrit, and the nominative absolute in English.
11. n. In metaphysics: That which is free from any restriction, or is unconditioned; hence, the ultimate ground of all things; God: as, it is absurd to place a limit to the power of the Absolute.
12. n. That which is perfect or complete: as, its beauty approaches the absolute. That which is independent of some or all relations; the non-relative.
13. n. In mathematics, a locus whose projective relation to any two elements may be considered as constituting the metrical relation of these elements to one another. All measurement is made by successive superpositions of a unit upon parts of the quantity to be measured. Now, in all shiftings of the standard of measurement, if this be supposed to be rigidly connected with an unlimited continuum superposed upon that in which lies the measured quantity, there will be a certain locus which will always continue unmoved, and to which, therefore, the scale of measurement can never be applied. This is the absolute. In order to establish a system of measurement along a line, we first put a scale of numbers on the line in such a manner that to every point of the line corresponds one number, and to every number one point. If then we take any second scale of numbers related in this manner to the points of the line, to any number, x, of the first scale, will correspond just one number, y, of the second. If this correspondence extends to imaginary points, x and y will be connected by an equation linear in x and linear in y, which may be written thus: xy + ax + by + c = 0. The scale will thus be shifted from x = 0 to y = 0 or x = −c′ a. In this shifting, two points of the scale remain unmoved, namely, those which satisfy the equation x + (a + b) x + c = 0. This pair of points, which may be really distinct, coincident, or imaginary, constitute the absolute. For a plane, the absolute is a curve of the second order and second class. For three-dimensional space it is a quadric surface. For the ordinary system of measurement in space, producing the Euclidean geometry, the absolute consists of two coincident planes joined along an imaginary circle, which circle is itself usually termed the absolute. See distance and anharmonic ratio.

Wiktionary

1. adj. physics Independent of arbitrary units of measurement not comparative or relative as,
2. adj. law Complete; unconditional; final; without encumbrances; not liable to change or cancellation.
3. adj. education Pertaining to a grading system based on the knowledge of the individual and not on the comparative knowledge of the group of students.
4. adj. art Concerned entirely with expressing beauty and feelings, lacking meaningful reference.
5. adj. dance Utilizing the body to express ideas, independent of music and costumes.
6. adj. mathematics Indicating an expression that is true for all real number; unconditional.
7. n. geometry In a plane, the two imaginary circular points at infinity; in space of three dimensions, the imaginary circle at infinity.
8. n. philosophy, usually capitalized A realm which exists without reference to anything else; that which can be imagined purely by itself; absolute ego.
9. n. philosophy, usually capitalized The unity of spirit and nature; God.
10. n. philosophy, usually capitalized The whole of reality; the totality to which everything is reduced.
11. n. Concentrated natural flower oil, used for perfumes.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. adj. Loosed from any limitation or condition; uncontrolled; unrestricted; unconditional.
2. adj. Complete in itself; perfect; consummate; faultless.
3. adj. Viewed apart from modifying influences or without comparison with other objects; actual; real; -- opposed to relative and comparative
4. adj. Loosed from, or unconnected by, dependence on any other being; self-existent; self-sufficing.
5. adj. Capable of being thought or conceived by itself alone; unconditioned; non-relative.
6. adj. rare Positive; clear; certain; not doubtful.
7. adj. rare Authoritative; peremptory.
8. adj. (Chem.) Pure; unmixed.
9. adj. (Gram.) Not immediately dependent on the other parts of the sentence in government. See Ablative absolute, under Ablative.
10. n. (Geom.) In a plane, the two imaginary circular points at infinity; in space of three dimensions, the imaginary circle at infinity.

WordNet 3.0

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