adj · academic
abstract
/ˈæbstrækt/AB·stract
Band 7+task2speaking
Existing in thought or as an idea but not having a physical or concrete existence; (n.) a short summary of a longer text
Examples
“The article gives an abstract overview of recent studies on climate change.”
“In Task 1 you should write a clear abstract if asked for a summary.”
“She dealt with abstract concepts like justice and freedom.”
Band 8 sentence
“The author's abstract succinctly summarises the study's aims, methodology and principal findings.”
Collocations
- abstract concept
- abstract idea
- abstract summary / abstract of the paper
Word family
abstraction nabstractly advabstracted adj
Common mistakes
use 'abstract' to mean 'difficult'→use 'difficult' or 'challenging'
Say it for a higher band
5vague→6general→7+abstract
Synonyms
theoretical
conceptual
Easily confused
abstruse
“The theory in the paper was abstruse and hard for undergraduates to follow.”
Related words
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In Sublist 5
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