noun
abstraction
ab-STRAK-shun/æbˈstrækʃn/
A representation that sets aside concrete detail to focus on form or essential features.
The simplified chair shape is an abstraction of several different chairs.
Etymology
The pieces express a “drawing away” or detachment. In the selected sense, the separation is conceptual: a general idea is drawn away from the particular examples in which it appears.
In context
the loss of a loved person or to the loss of some abstraction which has taken place of one such as one's country Liberty and ideal
More examples
- Freedom can seem like an abstraction until it is threatened.
- The diagram uses abstraction to omit irrelevant details.
- The painter moved from realistic landscapes to geometric abstraction.
Forms
abstraction · abstractions
abstract adjective — concerned with general ideas rather than particular things