abstraction

Illustration lost critical standing with the rise of abstraction, according to Moffatt and author Leo Braudy, professor emeritus of English and art history at USC.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 9, 2026

Setting aside Pearl Harbor, any real threat to the “homeland” was mostly an abstraction in itself.

From Salon ● Aug. 30, 2026

Farmers source additional water for their crops and livestock over summer from a combination of stored winter rainfall on site, and by extracting it from natural sources - a process called abstraction.

From BBC ● Aug. 5, 2026

For much of the novel, we inhabit the consciousness of Lok, a young male Neanderthal who hasn’t yet acquired the habits of abstraction on which narrative usually depends.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 22, 2026

It was simply that nobody could figure out what to do with such an abstraction.

From "The Lives of a Cell" by Lewis Thomas

First, practice distinguishing between what the Constitution says and what judges and justices say about the Constitution, a document riddled with aspirational vagaries and flexible abstractions.

From Slate ● Jul. 20, 2026

It creates abstractions of the real world that allow it to assess the outcomes of actions.

From BBC ● Jul. 2, 2026

Or they could simply be arresting abstractions in a sculpture that sits aesthetically between formal attraction and repulsion.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 10, 2026

Power and policy are not abstractions — they impact real people’s bodies, minds and lives, and they affect the well-being of the larger community.

From Salon ● Mar. 3, 2026

While the stories were vivid, the lectures were abstract, treatises on obscure philosophical subjects, and it was to these abstractions that I devoted most of my study.

From "Educated" by Tara Westover