Absolute ˈæbsəluːt Adjective Joined Class Beginners Confidence/Trust/Silence/Truth Wrong

• i've joined a class for absolute beginners.
• absolute confidence/trust/silence/truth
• ‘you're wrong,’ she said with absolute certainty.
• clean water is an absolute necessity.

absolute

1. total and complete
• I've joined a class for absolute beginners.
• absolute confidence/trust/silence/truth
• ‘You're wrong,’ she said with absolute certainty.
• Clean water is an absolute necessity.
• Around them the darkness was absolute, the silence oppressive.

Extra Examples

• He demands absolute obedience from his men.
• They drove back to the house in absolute silence.
2. used, especially in spoken English, to give emphasis to what you are saying
• We must keep costs to an absolute minimum.
• This room is an absolute disgrace.
• They're talking absolute nonsense.
• He must earn an absolute fortune.

Extra Examples

• What an absolute idiot I’ve been!
• The way you treated her was an absolute disgrace.
• There's absolute rubbish on television tonight.
3. definite and without any doubt
• There was no absolute proof.
• He taught us that the laws of physics were absolute.
• The story offers no clear message, no absolute truth.
4. (of a legal decision) final
• SEE ALSO decree absolute
  https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/decree-absolute
• The divorce became absolute last week.
5. not limited in any way
• absolute power/authority
• an absolute ruler/monarchy (= one with no limit to their power)
6. existing or measured independently and not in relation to something else
• COMPARE relative
  https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/relative_2
• Although prices are falling in absolute terms, energy is still expensive.
• Beauty cannot be measured by any absolute standard.

Word Origin

• late Middle English: from Latin absolutus ‘freed, unrestricted’, past participle of absolvere ‘set free, acquit’, from ab- ‘from’ + solvere ‘loosen’.