concrete
(adjective) capable of being perceived by the senses; not abstract or imaginary; “concrete objects such as trees”
concrete
(adjective) formed by the coalescence of particles
concrete
(noun) a strong hard building material composed of sand and gravel and cement and water
concrete
(verb) form into a solid mass; coalesce
concrete
(verb) cover with cement; “concrete the walls”
Source: WordNet® 3.1
concrete (comparative more concrete, superlative most concrete)
Real, actual, tangible.
Being or applying to actual things, not abstract qualities or categories.
Particular, specific, rather than general.
United by coalescence of separate particles, or liquid, into one mass or solid.
(modifying a noun, not comparable) Made of concrete, a building material.
• (perceivable): tangible
• (not abstract): tangible
• (particular, specific): See also specific
• (perceivable): intangible
• (not abstract): intangible, abstract
• (particular, specific): See also generic
• (united): discrete
concrete (countable and uncountable, plural concretes)
(obsolete) A solid mass formed by the coalescence of separate particles; a compound substance, a concretion.
Specifically, a building material created by mixing cement, water, and aggregate such as gravel and sand.
(logic) A term designating both a quality and the subject in which it exists; a concrete term.
Sugar boiled down from cane juice to a solid mass.
(US) A dessert of frozen custard with various toppings.
(chemistry) An extract of herbal materials that has a semi-solid consistency, especially when such materials are partly aromatic.
concrete (third-person singular simple present concretes, present participle concreting, simple past and past participle concreted)
(usually, transitive) To cover with or encase in concrete (building material).
(usually, transitive) To solidify: to change from being abstract to being concrete (actual, real).
(intransitive, obsolete) To unite or coalesce into a mass or a solid body.
Etymologically, the antonym of concrete (verb) is secrete, but the two words have so far gone their different ways that this is scarcely noticed today.
• cocenter
Source: Wiktionary
Con"crete ( or ), a. Etym: [L. concretus, p. p. of concrescere to grow together; con- + crescere to grow; cf. F. concret. See Crescent.]
1. United in growth; hence, formed by coalition of separate particles into one mass; united in a solid form. The first concrete state, or consistent surface, of the chaos must be of the same figure as the last liquid state. Bp. Burnet.
2. (Logic) (a) Standing for an object as it exists in nature, invested with all its qualities, as distingushed from standing for an attribute of an object; -- opposed to abstract. Hence: (b) Applied to a specific object; special; particular; -- opposed to general. See Abstract, 3. Concrete is opposed to a abstract. The names of individuals are concrete, those of classes abstract. J. S. Mill. Concrete terms, while they express the quality, do also express, or imply, or refer to, some subject to which it belongs. I. Watts. Concrete number, a number associated with, or applied to, a particular object, as three men, five days, etc., as distinguished from an abstract number, or one used without reference to a particular object.
– Concrete quantity, a physical object or a collection of such objects. Davies & Peck.
– Concrete science, a physical science, one having as its subject of knowledge concrete things instead of abstract laws.
– Concrete sound or movement of the voice, one which slides continuously up or down, as distinguished from a discrete movement, in which the voice leaps at once from one line of pitch to another. Rush.
Con"crete, n.
1. A compound or mass formed by concretion, spontaneous union, or coalescence of separate particles of matter in one body. To divide all concretes, minerals and others, into the same number of distinct substances. Boyle.
2. 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.
3. (Logic)
Definition: A term designating both a quality and the subject in which it exists; a concrete term. The concretes "father" and "son" have, or might have, the abstracts "paternity" and "filiety". J. S. Mill.
4. (Sugar Making)
Definition: Sugar boiled down from cane juice to a solid mass.
Con*crete", v. i. [imp. & p. p. Concreted; p. pr & vb. n. Concreting.]
Definition: To unite or coalesce, as separate particles, into a mass or solid body.
Note: Applied to some substances, it is equivalent to indurate; as, metallic matter concretes into a hard body; applied to others, it is equivalent to congeal, thicken, inspissate, coagulate, as in the concretion of blood. "The blood of some who died of the plague could not be made to concrete." Arbuthnot.
Con*crete", v. t.
1. To form into a mass, as by the cohesion or coalescence of separate particles. There are in our inferior world divers bodies that are concreted out of others. Sir M. Hale.
2. To cover with, or form of, concrete, as a pavement.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition
22 February 2025
(noun) the use of closed-class words instead of inflections: e.g., ‘the father of the bride’ instead of ‘the bride’s father’
According to Guinness World Records, on 25 September 2016, the Birla Institute of Management Technology (India) in Uttar Pradesh, India, constructed the largest coffee cups pyramid consisting of 23,821 cups. They used paper takeaway coffee cups to build the pyramid.
