Concrete vs. Absolute — What's the Difference?

Concrete is a composite material composed of fine and coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement (cement paste) that hardens (cures) over time. In the past, lime based cement binders, such as lime putty, were often used but sometimes with other hydraulic cements, such as a calcium aluminate cement or with Portland cement to form Portland cement concrete (named for its visual resemblance to Portland stone).

Unqualified in extent or degree; total

Existing in a material or physical form; not abstract

Not limited by restrictions or exceptions

A building material made from a mixture of broken stone or gravel, sand, cement, and water, which can be spread or poured into moulds and forms a mass resembling stone on hardening

Being fully such; utter

Cover (an area) with concrete

Unconstrained by constitutional or other provisions

Form (something) into a mass; solidify

Not mixed; pure

Of or relating to an actual, specific thing or instance; particular

Not to be doubted or questioned; positive

Relating to nouns, such as flower or rain, that denote a material or tangible object or phenomenon.

Of, relating to, or being a word, phrase, or construction that is isolated syntactically from the rest of a sentence, as the referee having finally arrived in The referee having finally arrived, the game began.

Existing in reality or in real experience; perceptible by the senses; real

Of, relating to, or being a transitive verb when its object is implied but not stated. For example, inspires in We have a teacher who inspires is an absolute verb.

Formed by the coalescence of separate particles or parts into one mass; solid.

Of, relating to, or being an adjective or pronoun that stands alone when the noun it modifies is being implied but not stated. For example, in Theirs were the best, theirs is an absolute pronoun and best is an absolute adjective.

Made of hard, strong, conglomerate construction material.

Relating to measurements or units of measurement derived from fundamental units of length, mass, and time.

A hard, strong construction material consisting of sand, conglomerate gravel, pebbles, broken stone, or slag in a mortar or cement matrix.

Relating to absolute temperature.

A mass formed by the coalescence of particles.

(Law) Complete and unconditional; final

To build, treat, or cover with hard, strong conglomerate construction material.

Something that is absolute.

To form into a mass by coalescence or cohesion of particles or parts.

Something regarded as the ultimate and transcendent basis of all thought and being. Used with the.

To harden; solidify.

Something regarded as exceeding or transcending everything else to the point of being independent and unrelated.

Real, actual, tangible.

Free of restrictions, limitations, qualifications or conditions; unconditional.

Being or applying to actual things, not abstract qualities or categories.

Unrestricted by laws, a constitution, or parliamentary or judicial or other checks; (legally) unlimited in power, especially if despotic.

Particular, specific, rather than general.

Free from imperfection, perfect, complete; especially, perfectly embodying a quality in its essential characteristics or to its highest degree.

United by coalescence of separate particles, or liquid, into one mass or solid.

Pure, free from mixture or adulteration; unmixed.

Made of concrete, a building material.

Complete, utter, outright; unmitigated, not qualified or diminished in any way.

(obsolete) A solid mass formed by the coalescence of separate particles; a compound substance, a concretion.

Positive, certain; unquestionable; not in doubt.

Specifically, a building material created by mixing cement, water, and aggregate such as gravel and sand.

(archaic) Certain; free from doubt or uncertainty (e.g. a person, opinion or prediction).

(logic) A term designating both a quality and the subject in which it exists; a concrete term.

Fundamental, ultimate, intrinsic; not relative; independent of references or relations to other things or standards.

Sugar boiled down from cane juice to a solid mass.

(physics) Independent of arbitrary units of measurement, standards, or properties; not comparative or relative.

(US) A dessert of frozen custard with various toppings.

Having reference to or derived in the simplest manner from the fundamental units of mass, time, and length.

(chemistry) An extract of herbal materials that has a semi-solid consistency, especially when such materials are partly aromatic.

Relating to the absolute temperature scale (based on absolute zero); kelvin.

To cover with or encase in concrete (building material).

(grammar) Not immediately dependent on the other parts of the sentence; not in a syntactical relation with other parts of a text, or qualifying the text as a whole rather than any single word in it, like "it being over" in "it being over, she left".

To solidify: to change from being abstract to being concrete (actual, real).

(of a case form) Syntactically connected to the rest of the sentence in an atypical manner, or not relating to or depending on it, like in the nominative absolute or genitive absolute, accusative absolute or ablative absolute.

To unite or coalesce into a mass or a solid body.

(of an adjective or possessive pronoun) Lacking a modified substantive, like "hungry" in "feed the hungry".

United in growth; hence, formed by coalition of separate particles into one mass; united in a solid form.

Expressing a relative term without a definite comparison, like "older" in "an older person should be treated with respect".

Standing for an object as it exists in nature, invested with all its qualities, as distinguished from standing for an attribute of an object; - opposed to abstract.

Positive; not graded (not comparative or superlative).

A compound or mass formed by concretion, spontaneous union, or coalescence of separate particles of matter in one body.

(of a usually transitive verb) Having no direct object, like "kill" in "if looks could kill".

A mixture of gravel, pebbles, or broken stone with cement or with tar, etc., used for sidewalks, roadways, foundations, etc., and esp. for submarine structures.

(of Celtic languages) Being or pertaining to an inflected verb that is not preceded by any number of particles or compounded with a preverb.

A term designating both a quality and the subject in which it exists; a concrete term.

(math) As measured using an absolute value.

Sugar boiled down from cane juice to a solid mass.

(math) Indicating an expression that is true for all real numbers, or of all values of the variable; unconditional.

To unite or coalesce, as separate particles, into a mass or solid body.

(education) Pertaining to a grading system based on the knowledge of the individual and not on the comparative knowledge of the group of students.

To form into a mass, as by the cohesion or coalescence of separate particles.

Independent of (references to) other arts; expressing things (beauty, ideas, etc) only in one art.

To cover with, or form of, concrete, as a pavement.

Indicating that a tenure or estate in land is not conditional or liable to terminate on (strictly) any occurrence or certain kinds of occurrence.

A strong hard building material composed of sand and gravel and cement and water

(obsolete) Absolved; free.

Cover with cement;

That which exists (or has a certain property, nature, size, etc) independent of references to other standards or external conditions; that which is universally valid; that which is not relative, conditional, qualified or mitigated.

Form into a solid mass; coalesce

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

Capable of being perceived by the senses; not abstract or imaginary;

A realm which exists without reference to anything else; that which can be imagined purely by itself; absolute ego.

Formed by the coalescence of particles

The whole of reality; the totality to which everything is reduced; the unity of spirit and nature; God.

(chemistry) A concentrated natural flower oil, used for perfumes; an alcoholic extract of a concrete.

Loosed from any limitation or condition; uncontrolled; unrestricted; unconditional; as, absolute authority, monarchy, sovereignty, an absolute promise or command; absolute power; an absolute monarch.

Complete in itself; perfect; consummate; faultless; as, absolute perfection; absolute beauty.

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.

Loosed from, or unconnected by, dependence on any other being; self-existent; self-sufficing.

Capable of being thought or conceived by itself alone; unconditioned; non-relative.

Positive; clear; certain; not doubtful.

Authoritative; peremptory.

Pure; unmixed; as, absolute alcohol.

Not immediately dependent on the other parts of the sentence in government; as, the case absolute. See Ablative absolute, under Ablative.

In a plane, the two imaginary circular points at infinity; in space of three dimensions, the imaginary circle at infinity.

Something that is conceived to be absolute; something that does not depends on anything else and is beyond human control;

Perfect or complete or pure;

Complete and without restriction or qualification; sometimes used informally as intensifiers;

Not limited by law;

Expressing finality with no implication of possible change;

Without conditions or limitations;

Not capable of being violated or infringed;