Absolute vs. Qualified

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

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

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

Example: ‘absolute purity, absolute liberty’;

Pure, free from mixture or adulteration; unmixed.

Example: ‘absolute alcohol’;

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

Example: ‘When caught, he told an absolute lie.’; ‘an absolute denial of all charges’;

Positive, certain; unquestionable.

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

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

Example: ‘the doctrine that absolute knowledge of things is possible, an absolute principle’; ‘Absolute rights and duties are such as pertain to man in a state of nature as contradistinguished from relative rights and duties, or such as pertain to him in his social relations.’;

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

Example: ‘absolute velocity, absolute motion, absolute position’;

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

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

(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".

(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.

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

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

Positive; not graded (not comparative or superlative).

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

Being or pertaining to an inflected verb that is not preceded by any number of articles or compounded with a preverb.

(math) As measured using an absolute value.

Example: ‘absolute deviation’; ‘absolute square’; ‘mean absolute' difference’;

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

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

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

Example: ‘absolute music''’;

(obsolete) Absolved; free.

That which is independent of context-dependent interpretation, inviolate, fundamental.

Example: ‘moral absolutes’;

Anything that is absolute.

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

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

The unity of spirit and nature; God.

The whole of reality; the totality to which everything is reduced.

Concentrated natural flower oil, used for perfumes.

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.

Example: ‘So absolute she seems,And in herself complete.’;

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.

Example: ‘To Cusa we can indeed articulately trace, word and thing, the recent philosophy of the absolute.’;

Positive; clear; certain; not doubtful.

Example: ‘I am absolute 't was very Cloten.’;

Authoritative; peremptory.

Example: ‘The peddler stopped, and tapped her on the head,With absolute forefinger, brown and ringed.’;

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;

Example: ‘no mortal being can influence the absolute’;

perfect or complete or pure;

Example: ‘absolute loyalty’; ‘absolute silence’; ‘absolute truth’; ‘absolute alcohol’;

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

Example: ‘absolute freedom’; ‘an absolute dimwit’; ‘a downright lie’; ‘out-and-out mayhem’; ‘an out-and-out lie’; ‘a rank outsider’; ‘many right-down vices’; ‘got the job through sheer persistence’; ‘sheer stupidity’;

not limited by law;

Example: ‘an absolute monarch’;

expressing finality with no implication of possible change;

Example: ‘an absolute (or unequivocal) quarantee to respect the nation's authority’; ‘inability to make a conclusive (or unequivocal) refusal’;

without conditions or limitations;

Example: ‘a total ban’;

not capable of being violated or infringed;

Example: ‘infrangible human rights’;

Meeting the standards, requirements, and training for a position.

Restricted or limited by conditions.

Example: ‘Assuming that I have all the information, my qualified opinion is that your plan will work.’;

simple past tense and past participle of qualify

Fitted by accomplishments or endowments.

Modified; limited; as, a qualified statement.

meeting the proper standards and requirements and training for an office or position or task;

Example: ‘many qualified applicants for the job’;

limited or restricted; not absolute;

Example: ‘gave only qualified approval’;

holding appropriate documentation and officially on record as qualified to perform a specified function or practice a specified skill;

Example: ‘a registered pharmacist’; ‘a registered hospital’;

restricted in meaning; (as e.g. `man' in `a tall man')

having elements or qualities mixed in proper or suitable proportions; especially made less severe;

Example: ‘justice moderated with mercy’;

contingent on something else

legally qualified;

Example: ‘a competent witness’;

officially recognized as being trained to perform a particular job; certified

Example: ‘newly qualified nurses’;

competent or knowledgeable to do something; capable

Example: ‘I was less well qualified than almost anyone present to recollect the olden days’;

not complete or absolute; limited

Example: ‘I could only judge this CD a qualified success’;