absolute
absolute Lexical Profile
absolute Game Scores & Validity
• adjective
Complete, total, and not diminished or qualified in any way.
"The library required absolute silence in the main reading room."
Possessing unlimited and unrestricted power or authority, free from constitutional or legal restraint.
"For centuries, the country was governed by an absolute monarch."
Viewed or existing independently and not in relation or comparison to other things; not relative or comparative.
"In physics, absolute zero is the lowest temperature that is theoretically possible."
Definite, certain, and beyond any doubt or question.
"The prosecution needed absolute proof before bringing the case to trial."
Free from mixture, adulteration, or imperfection (especially of a chemical substance such as alcohol).
"The laboratory experiment required absolute ethanol with less than one percent water content."
• noun
A value, principle, or truth regarded as universally valid and independent of arbitrary standards or changing circumstances.
"In ethics, philosophers debate whether moral absolutes exist across all cultures."
A highly concentrated, viscous, aromatic oil extracted from plants by solvent extraction and used in perfumery.
"The master perfumer blended jasmine absolute with sandalwood to create the fragrance."
Word Nuance & Usage
'Absolute' is traditionally considered an non-gradable (ungraed) adjective because it denotes completeness or perfection; however, in informal speech, comparative and superlative modifiers ('more absolute', 'most absolute') occasionally appear for rhetorical emphasis.
• Nearby Words
Word Origin & Etymology
Borrowed in Middle English from Latin 'absolutus', the past participle of 'absolvere' ('to set free, acquit, or bring to completion'), formed from 'ab-' ('away from') and 'solvere' ('to loosen').