Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Pertaining to abstraction; having the power or quality of abstracting.
  • Pertaining to or of the nature of an abstract, epitome, or summary.
  • Abstractitious.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Having the power of abstracting; of an abstracting nature.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective of an abstracting nature or having the power of abstracting

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Momental areas can evidently be defined as abstractive elements by exactly the same method as applied to solids.

    The Concept of Nature The Tarner Lectures Delivered in Trinity College, November 1919 Alfred North Whitehead 1904

  • Between that which Balzac tabulated as the "abstractive" type of human evolvement and that which is fully cosmic in consciousness, there are many and diverse degrees of the higher faculties; but the poet always expresses some one of these degrees of the higher consciousness; indeed some poets are of that versatile nature that they run the entire gamut of the emotional nature, now descending to the ordinary normal consciousness which takes account only of the personal self; again ascending to the heights of the impersonal fearlessness and unassailable confidence that is the heritage of those who have reached the full stature of the "man-god whom we await" -- the cosmic conscious race that is to be.

    Cosmic Consciousness

  • Geox, a high quality, value-oriented sponsor, of precisely the kind cycling needs right now, is being told that his return on investment is subject to some abstractive ruling in Aigle Switzerland, the UCI headquarters.

    Geox team boss Mauro Gianetti says he’s mystified by ProTeam exclusion 2010

  • Norris offers an important insight into how the real distinction proof depends on abstractive processes.

    Motherly Advice Trace Sheridan 2009

  • The defense of Descartes 'real distinction proof is enlightening because it renders transparent the assumption of abstractive knowledge that might have aided contemporary readers' understanding of the proof.

    Motherly Advice Trace Sheridan 2009

  • The fact that hypotheses are abstractive demonstrates only that they are incomplete, not that they are false.

    Correspondence, abstraction, and realism Daniel Little 2008

  • In the latter case, the more substantial passage, he gives a somewhat Scotistic definition: "Intuitive and abstractive cognition are not distinguished according to having a species or not, but only according to the disposition of the object, because if the object is present, the species represents it intuitively; if absent, it represents it abstractively."

    Francis of Marchia Schabel, Christopher 2008

  • Therefore, "the same species that is intuitive in the presence of the object is abstractive in the absence of the object."

    Francis of Marchia Schabel, Christopher 2008

  • The fact that hypotheses are abstractive demonstrates only that they are incomplete, not that they are false.

    Correspondence, abstraction, and realism Daniel Little 2008

  • The fact that hypotheses are abstractive demonstrates only that they are incomplete, not that they are false.

    Archive 2008-12-01 Daniel Little 2008

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