Noun

(philosophy) An abstract archetype of a given thing, compared to which real-life examples are seen as imperfect approximations; pure essence, as opposed to actual examples.

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-10-19, volume=409, issue=8858, magazine=(The Economist)

, title= Trouble at the lab , passage=The idea that the same experiments always get the same results, no matter who performs them, is one of the cornerstones of science’s claim to objective truth. If a systematic campaign of replication does not lead to the same results, then either the original research is flawed (as the replicators claim) or the replications are (as many of the original researchers on priming contend). Either way, something is awry.}}

(obsolete) The conception of someone or something as representing a perfect example; an ideal.

(obsolete) The form or shape of something; a quintessential aspect or characteristic.

*, II.6:

The remembrance whereof (which yet I beare deepely imprinted in my minde) representing me her visage and Idea so lively and so naturally, doth in some sort reconcile me unto her.

An image of an object that is formed in the mind or recalled by the memory.

More generally, any result of mental activity; a thought, a notion; a way of thinking.

*

, title=(The Celebrity), chapter=3 , passage=Now all this was very fine, but not at all in keeping with the Celebrity's character as I had come to conceive it. The idea that adulation ever cloyed on him was ludicrous in itself. In fact I thought the whole story fishy, and came very near to saying so.}}

* 1952 , (Alfred Whitney Griswold)

Ideas won't go to jail.

A conception in the mind of something to be done; a plan for doing something, an (l).

* , chapter=3

, title= Mr. Pratt's Patients , passage=My hopes wa'n't disappointed. I never saw clams thicker than they was along them inshore flats. I filled my dreener in no time, and then it come to me that 'twouldn't be a bad idee to get a lot more, take 'em with me to Wellmouth, and peddle 'em out. Clams was fairly scarce over that side of the bay and ought to fetch a fair price.}}

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-01, volume=407, issue=8838, page=71, magazine=(The Economist)

, title= End of the peer show , passage=Finance is seldom romantic. But the idea of peer-to-peer lending comes close. This is an industry that brings together individual savers and lenders on online platforms. Those that want to borrow are matched with those that want to lend.}}

A vague or fanciful (l); a feeling or hunch; an impression.

(music) A musical theme or melodic subject.

Noun

(uncountable) The process of concretizing]] a general principle or idea by delineating, [[particularize, particularizing, or exemplifying it.

* 1934 , J. Tinbergen, "Annual Survey of Significant Developments in General Economic Theory," Econometrica , vol. 2, no. 1, p. 25:

There are certain fields in general economics that are at present not so much in need of a broadening of the theoretical basis as in need of a minute working-out and concretization .

* 1961 , H. Kelsen, General Theory of Law and State , p. 237:

[Law] proceeds from the general (abstract) to the individual (particular); it is a process of increasing individualization and concretization .

(countable) Something specific which is the result of a process of concretizing a general principle or idea.

* 1979 , Trudy Scott, "Stuart Sherman's Singular Spectacles," The Drama Review: TDR , vol. 23, no. 1, p. 75:

This movement gave Sherman his first image—a roller skate—a concretization of pure motion.

* 1993 , Lubomír Doležel, "Semiotic Poetics of the Prague School," in Irene Rima Makaryk (ed.) Encyclopedia of Contemporary Literary Theory: Approaches, Scholars, Terms , ISBN 9780802068606, p. 182 (Google preview):

Vodicka's reception history is an empirical study of the post-genesis fortunes of literary works as attested in recorded concretizations (diaries, memoirs, letters, critical reviews, and essays).

(uncountable, medicine, psychology) An inability to generalize or perform abstraction accompanied by excessive concentration on specific details, as in a mental disorder or in cognition by children.

* 1969 , E. Drage and B. Lange, "Ethical Considerations in the Use of Patients for Demonstration," The American Journal of Nursing , vol. 69, no. 10, p. 2165:

Another [patient] commented on the fact that the consultant had referred to two of them as "boys" in the demonstration. The concretization of a schizophrenic is exemplified here. One man thought this word meant that the consultant, in order "to keep things on the level of boy-girl, wanted everyone else to consider her as a girl, so the boys and girls could communicate."