Webster's English Dictionary

Enter the word to look up:

absolute

ab.so.lute \'ab-s*-.lu:t\ \'ab-s*-.lu:t-le-, .ab-s*-'\ \-.lu:t-n*s, 
   -'lu:t-\ aj [ME absolute, fr. L absolutus, fr. pp. of absolvere] 1a: free 
   from imperfection : PERFECT  1b: free from mixture : PURE {~ alcohol}  2: 
   being, governed by, or characteristic of a ruler or authority completel y 
   free from constitutional or other restraint 3a: standing apart from a 
   normal or usual syntactical relation with other  words or sentence elements 
   {the ~ construction this being the case in the sentence "this being the 
   case, let us go"} of an adjective or possessive pronoun  3b: standing alone 
   without a modified substantive {blind in "help  the blind" and ours in 
   "your work and ours" are ~} of a verb  3c: having no object in the 
   particular construction under consideration though normally transitive 
   {kill in "if looks could kill" is an ~ verb} 4: having no restriction, 
   exception, or qualification {an ~ requir ement ~freedom} 5: INDUBITABLE, 
   UNQUESTIONABLE {~ proof}  6a: independent of arbitrary standards of 
   measurement  6b: relating to or derived in the simplest manner from the 
   fundamental uni ts of length, mass and time {~ electric units} 6c: relating 
   to the absolute-temperature scale {10^ ~}  7: FUNDAMENTAL, ULTIMATE  8: 
   perfectly embodying the nature of a thing  9: comprising an artistically 
   self-sufficient composition having no extern al reference {~ music} 10: 
   measuring or representing the distance from an aircraft to the ground  or 
   water beneath - absolute n