Abstraction

noun

1. The act of abstracting, separating, withdrawing, or taking away; withdrawal; the state of being taken away.
2. A separation from worldly objects; a recluse life; the withdrawal from one's senses.
3. The act of focusing on one characteristic of an object rather than the object as a whole group of characteristics; the act of separating said qualities from the object or ideas.

   "Abstraction is necessary for the classification of things into genera and species."

4. Any characteristic of an individual object when that characteristic has been separated from the object and is contemplated alone as a quality having independent existence.
5. A member of an idealized subgroup when contemplated according to the abstracted quality which defines the subgroup.