Abstract vs. Summary — What's the Difference?

A brief overview of a research article or study.

A comprehensive yet shortened rendition of content.

A conceptual understanding devoid of particular instances or material objects.

A concise version of a longer piece of information.

A summary of a legal document.

An encapsulation that omits less important details.

Not concrete or related to specific instances.

A recapitulation of previously stated facts or statements.

Theoretical and not physically existing.

A brief statement mentioning the main points of something

Considered apart from concrete existence

Prose that provides information in a condensed format, as by mentioning only the most significant details of a narrative

Not applied or practical; theoretical.

Presenting the substance in a condensed form; concise

Difficult to understand; abstruse

Performed speedily and without ceremony

Denoting something that is immaterial, conceptual, or nonspecific, as an idea or quality

Concise, brief or presented in a condensed form

Impersonal, as in attitude or views.

Performed speedily and without formal ceremony.

Having an intellectual and affective artistic content that depends solely on intrinsic form rather than on narrative content or pictorial representation

(legal) Performed by skipping the procedures of a standard and fair trial.

A statement summarizing the important points of a text.

An abstract or a condensed presentation of the substance of a body of material.

Something abstract.

Formed into a sum; summed up; reduced into a narrow compass, or into few words; short; brief; concise; compendious; as, a summary statement of facts.

An abstract of title.

Hence, rapidly performed; quickly executed; as, a summary process; to take summary vengeance.

To take away; remove

A general or comprehensive statement; an abridged account; an abstract, abridgment, or compendium, containing the sum or substance of a fuller account.

To remove without permission; steal

A briefstatement that presents the main points in a concise form;

To consider (an idea, for example) as separate from particular examples or objects

Performed speedily and without formality;

(ăbstrăkt′) To write a summary of; summarize

Briefly giving the gist of something;

To create artistic abstractions of (something else, such as a concrete object or another style)

A brief statement or account of the main points of a piece of writing.

An abridgement or summary of a longer publication.

Something that concentrates in itself the qualities of a larger item, or multiple items.

Concentrated essence of a product.

(medicine) A powdered solid extract of a medicinal substance mixed with lactose.

An abstraction; an abstract term; that which is abstract.

The theoretical way of looking at things; something that exists only in idealized form.

(arts) An abstract work of art.

(real estate) A summary title of the key points detailing a tract of land, for ownership; abstract of title.

(obsolete) Derived; extracted.

Drawn away; removed from; apart from; separate.

Not concrete: conceptual, ideal.

Insufficiently factual.

Apart from practice or reality; vague; theoretical; impersonal; not applied.

(grammar) As a noun, denoting a concept or intangible as opposed to an object, place, or person.

Difficult to understand; abstruse; hard to conceptualize.

Separately expressing a property or attribute of an object that is considered to be inherent to that object: attributive, ascriptive.

Pertaining comprehensively to, or representing, a class or group of objects, as opposed to any specific object; considered apart from any application to a particular object: general, generic, nonspecific; representational.

(archaic) Absent-minded.

(arts) Pertaining to the formal aspect of art, such as the lines, colors, shapes, and the relationships among them.

Free from representational qualities, in particular the non-representational styles of the 20^th century.

(music) Absolute.

(dance) Lacking a story.

Being a partial basis for subclasses rather than a complete template for objects.

(transitive) To separate; to disengage.

(transitive) To remove; to take away; withdraw.

To steal; to take away; to remove without permission.

(transitive) To summarize; to abridge; to epitomize.

To conceptualize an ideal subgroup by means of the generalization of an attribute, as follows: by apprehending an attribute inherent to one individual, then separating that attribute and contemplating it by itself, then conceiving of that attribute as a general quality, then despecifying that conceived quality with respect to several or many individuals, and by then ideating a group composed of those individuals perceived to possess said quality.

To extract by means of distillation.

(transitive) To consider abstractly; to contemplate separately or by itself; to consider theoretically; to look at as a general quality.

To withdraw oneself; to retire.

(transitive) To draw off (interest or attention).

To perform the process of abstraction.

To create abstractions.

To produce an abstraction, usually by refactoring existing code. Generally used with "out".

Withdraw; separate.

Considered apart from any application to a particular object; separated from matter; existing in the mind only; as, abstract truth, abstract numbers. Hence: ideal; abstruse; difficult.

Expressing a particular property of an object viewed apart from the other properties which constitute it; - opposed to concrete; as, honesty is an abstract word.

Abstracted; absent in mind.

To withdraw; to separate; to take away.

To draw off in respect to interest or attention; as, his was wholly abstracted by other objects.

To separate, as ideas, by the operation of the mind; to consider by itself; to contemplate separately, as a quality or attribute.

To epitomize; to abridge.

To take secretly or dishonestly; to purloin; as, to abstract goods from a parcel, or money from a till.

To separate, as the more volatile or soluble parts of a substance, by distillation or other chemical processes. In this sense extract is now more generally used.

To perform the process of abstraction.

That which comprises or concentrates in itself the essential qualities of a larger thing or of several things. Specifically: A summary or an epitome, as of a treatise or book, or of a statement; a brief.

A state of separation from other things; as, to consider a subject in the abstract, or apart from other associated things.

An abstract term.

A powdered solid extract of a vegetable substance mixed with sugar of milk in such proportion that one part of the abstract represents two parts of the original substance.

A concept or idea not associated with any specific instance;

A sketchy summary of the main points of an argument or theory

Consider a concept without thinking of a specific example; consider abstractly or theoretically

Make off with belongings of others

Consider apart from a particular case or instance;

Give an abstract (of)

Existing only in the mind; separated from embodiment;

Not representing or imitating external reality or the objects of nature;

Based on specialized theory;

Dealing with a subject in the abstract without practical purpose or intention;

Generally, abstracts are shorter, but it depends on the summary's context and the original content's length.

No, an abstract relates more to research papers, while a summary can pertain to various content.

Essentially, yes. Both provide a condensed version of the story.

Most academic and research papers need an abstract, especially for database indexing.

An effective abstract should cover the research's purpose, methodology, key findings, and implications.

Yes, an abstract can introduce the paper, and a summary can recap its main points.

Typically, no. Summaries are meant to be shorter, distilling the main points.

A blurb is more promotional, while a summary objectively condenses the main points.

Abstracts allow readers to quickly determine a paper's relevance to their interests.

Summaries help students understand and retain main ideas without getting lost in details.

To provide a clear, shortened overview of longer content.

Typically, no. An abstract should be standalone and concise.

The abstract is usually placed at the beginning, before the main text.

While summaries should be objective, they can occasionally include interpretative points.

Abstracts often have guidelines depending on the academic field, while summaries are more flexible but should remain clear and concise.