Definition of "absolute"

absolute

/ˈæb.səˌluːt/

adjective
comparative more absolute or absoluter, superlative most absolute or absolutest
1. Free of restrictions, limitations, qualifications or conditions; unconditional.
  Quotations
  1658, Samuel Hoard, God[']s Love to Mankind, Manifested, by disprooving his absolute decree for their damnation
  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 [...]
  2005, Names, volume 53, page 238
  1. Unrestricted by laws, a constitution, or parliamentary or judicial or other checks; (legally) unlimited in power, especially if despotic.
    Quotations
    An absolute monarch is free from all forcible restraint, and so far as he is absolute[,] from all legal restraints of positive laws.
    1846, George Gillespie, The Presbyterian's Armoury
    Characteristic of an absolutist ruler: domineering, peremptory.
    Quotations
    The peddler stopped, and tapped her on the head, / With absolute forefinger, brown and ringed.
    1856, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Aurora Leigh
    […] the more absolute the ruler, the more absolute the revolution will be which replaces him.
    1962, Hannah Arendt, On Revolution, published 1990, page 155
2. Free from imperfection, perfect, complete; especially, perfectly embodying a quality in its essential characteristics or to its highest degree.
  Quotations
  So absolute she seems, / And in herself complete.
  1667, John Milton, “Book VIII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […]; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873,
  Indeed, my lord, it is a most absolute and excellent horse.
  1599, William Shakespeare, Henry V
3. Pure, free from mixture or adulteration; unmixed.
4. Complete, utter, outright; unmitigated, not qualified or diminished in any way.
  Quotations
  The growth and acceptance of this idea followed Amartya Sen's theory of exchange entitlements, which suggested that famines occur not from an absolute lack of food but from people's inability to obtain access to that food.
  2008, Household Economy Approach, page 3
5. (very occasionally postpositive) Positive, certain; unquestionable; not in doubt.
  Quotations
  Yet if the register is not to be absolute evidence of proprietorship, it is clear that some investigation of title would still be necessary.
  1862, The Solicitors' Journal and Reporter, volume 6, page 365
  [...] 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.
  1913, International Record of Medicine and General Practice Clinics
  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 [...]
  2021, HM Land Registry Practice Guide 26
6. (archaic) Certain; free from doubt or uncertainty (e.g. a person, opinion or prediction).
  Quotations
  I am absolute ’twas very Cloten.
  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, [Act IV, scene ii]
  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.
  1856, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “(please specify either |book=1 to 9 or the page)”, in Aurora Leigh, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1857
7. (especially philosophy) Fundamental, ultimate, intrinsic; not relative; independent of references or relations to other things or standards.
8. (physics) Independent of arbitrary units of measurement, standards, or properties; not comparative or relative.
  Quotations
  His experiments led him to infer that the boiling point of the substance is probably below 9 degrees absolute.
  1903, Ice and Refrigeration, volume 24, page 49
  This new absolute temperature scale (also called the Kelvin scale) employs the SI unit of absolute temperature, the kelvin, […]
  2015, Raymond A. Serway, John W. Jewett, Physics for Scientists and Engineers
  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".
  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.
  2. (of an adjective or possessive pronoun) Lacking a modified substantive, like "hungry" in "feed the hungry".
  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".
  4. (of an adjective form) Positive; not graded (not comparative or superlative).
    Quotations
    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.
    1991, English Grammar, 3rd edition
  5. (of a usually transitive verb) Having no direct object, like "kill" in "if looks could kill".
  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.
10. (mathematics) As measured using an absolute value.
11. (mathematics) 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.
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.
15. (obsolete) Absolved; free.
noun
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.
  Quotations
  But if the psychoanalytic mood seems gloomy or pretentious, one may merely think of Anna as a person who comes to deal in absolutes: unconditional demands, total fears, extremities of power and subservience, […]
  1987, Harold Bloom, Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, Chelsea House Pub
  Notice the use of unconditional absolutes in each of these statements. They are the words always, never, and forever. The illusion of absolutes is the ultimate pathological double bind. Yet the only absolute is that there are no absolutes.
  2002, Jordan Zarren, MSW, DAHB, Jordan I. Zarren, Bruce N. Eimer, Brief Cognitive Hypnosis: Facilitating the Change of Dysfunctional Behavior, Springer Publishing Company, page 97
  This is important to understand, for when we see that the knowledge of good and evil is an absolute, we realize we can have absolutely no say in what it is or is not. Pause for a moment and consider that. Mathematicians work in absolutes.
  2010, Joshua K. Hildebrandt, The Knowledge of Good and Evil: Who Decides What Is Morally Right and Wrong?, AuthorHouse, page 9
  The reason is that we are confronted here with a genuine moral dilemma, i.e. a clash of two moral absolutes – the unconditional right to protection of the fetus from the point of fertilization; and the unconditional protection of the right to choose of the pregnant woman.
  2010, Klaus Brinkmann, Idealism Without Limits: Hegel and the Problem of Objectivity, Springer Science & Business Media, page 265
  Often one is dealing not with absolutes (complete stability) but with relative differences in rate (see below).
  2012, P. Katsoyannis, The Chemistry of Polypeptides: Essays in Honor of Dr. Leonidas Zervas, Springer Science & Business Media, page 132
  When discussing these concepts, it is unreasonable to expect absolutes. Complete impact, complete compliance with Court decisions, and complete implementation are a myth even for the most admired Supreme Court decisions.
  2016, I. Unah, The Supreme Court in American Politics, Springer, page 187
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.
  Quotations
  Withdrawn as a Buddha he sat, watching the alien world from his perch in the absolute.
  1983, Lawrence Durrell, Sebastian (Avignon Quintet), Faber & Faber, published 2004, page 1039
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.
  Quotations
  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, […]
  1948, Ernest Guenther, The Essential Oils: History, origin in plants, production, analysis
  The main difference between these and those of indifferent quality is that the former contain flower absolutes in fairly large proportion and the latter either an insignificant quantity or […]
  2019, William A. Poucher, Perfumes, Cosmetics and Soaps: The Production, Manufacture and Application of Perfumes: Volume 2, page 57