the process of removing, extracting, or simplifying something; thinking about general ideas rather than specific examples.
From abstract (verb) + -ing present participle suffix. Originally meant 'drawing away' in Latin, now describes the cognitive act of generalizing.
Your brain is constantly 'abstracting'—when you see a dog, a wolf, and a coyote, you abstract the common features and create the concept 'canine,' which is why humans can think with categories instead of individual items.
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