Absolute

Ab·so·lute

Absolute

a.
  1. Loosed from any limitation or condition; uncontrolled; unrestricted; unconditional; as, absolute authority, monarchy, sovereignty, an absolute promise or command; absolute power; an absolute monarch.
  2. Complete in itself; perfect; consummate; faultless; as, absolute perfection; absolute beauty.
    So absolute she seems, And in herself complete.
  3. Viewed apart from modifying influences or without comparison with other objects; actual; real; -- opposed to relative and comparative; as, absolute motion; absolute time or space.
  4. Loosed from, or unconnected by, dependence on any other being; self-existent; self-sufficing.
  5. Capable of being thought or conceived by itself alone; unconditioned; non-relative.
    To Cusa we can indeed articulately trace, word and thing, the recent philosophy of the absolute.
  6. Positive; clear; certain; not doubtful. [R.]
    I am absolute 't was very Cloten.
  7. Authoritative; peremptory. [R.]
    The peddler stopped, and tapped her on the head, With absolute forefinger, brown and ringed.
  8. Pure; unmixed; as, absolute alcohol. (Chem.)
  9. Not immediately dependent on the other parts of the sentence in government; as, the case absolute. See Ablative absolute, under Ablative. (Gram.)

Phrases & Compounds

Absolute curvature
that curvature of a curve of double curvature, which is measured in the osculating plane of the curve.
Absolute equation
the sum of the optic and eccentric equations.
Absolute space
space considered without relation to material limits or objects.
Absolute terms
such as are known, or which do not contain the unknown quantity.
Absolute temperature
the temperature as measured on a scale determined by certain general thermo-dynamic principles, and reckoned from the absolute zero.
Absolute zero
the be ginning, or zero point, in the scale of absolute temperature. It is equivalent to -273° centigrade or -459.4° Fahrenheit.

Absolute

n.
  1. In a plane, the two imaginary circular points at infinity; in space of three dimensions, the imaginary circle at infinity. (Geom.)