From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishabsoluteab‧so‧lute1 /ˈæbsəluːt/ ●●○ S3 adjective 1 COMPLETELYcomplete or total I have absolute confidence in her. We don’t know with absolute certainty that the project will succeed.2 [only before noun] especially British English informal used to emphasize your opinion about something or someone Some of the stuff on TV is absolute rubbish. How did you do that? You’re an absolute genius. That meal last night cost an absolute fortune.3 CERTAINLY/DEFINITELYdefinite and not likely to change We need absolute proof that he took the money.4 LIMITnot restricted or limited an absolute monarch Parents used to have absolute power over their children.5 true, correct, and not changing in any situation You have an absolute right to refuse medical treatment.6 → in absolute terms
Examples from the Corpus
absolute• Reliance was also placed upon the power of absolute and immediate distress in the statute.• As long as Robert Hirsh is alive, deejays will never be at the absolute bottom of the barrel.• No one can say with absolute certainty that the oil is there.• April 10 is the absolute deadline.• The show was an absolute disaster the first night.• I know of no primitive people anywhere that either rejects and despises conflict or represents warfare as an absolute evil.• In absolute figures, he/she had more.• His office is an absolute mess.• This is an absolute necessity and to work in defiance of it means total failure.• an absolute standard of morality• Oh, and Cal, Agnes sounds like an absolute winner.• The technique allows them to chill atoms to a temperature as low as a millionth of a degree above absolute zero.absoluteabsolute2 noun [countable] something that is considered to be true or right in all situations She believed in the importance of moral absolutes.Examples from the Corpus
absolute• If there ever was an absolute, this comes close to being one of them.• Species can, in the new world of the molecules, no longer be seen as absolutes.• In business, there are very few absolutes.• As a religion humanism affirms some important absolutes.• Sometimes priorities can be expressed in absolute terms but at other times absolutes are impossible.• Communities need absolutes, ideals of truths, transcendent sources of authority which are unchanged and unchangeable.• If there are no absolutes or eternal values, then the moral imperative behind such movements evaporates into thin air.• By declaring a set of absolutes, it supplies standards as well as goals for both individuals and institutions.• But the left can not be equally self-serving by hanging on to absolutes.Origin absolute1 (1300-1400) Latin past participle of absolvere; → ABSOLVE 