Abstract — A Vocabulary Story
Drawing a Feeling
Nadia hated this homework. Draw something abstract, the teacher had written, and she'd been staring at the blank page so long her eyes had started to water.
Abstract means existing as an idea, not concrete or physical.
Her grandad found her slumped at the kitchen table. "Trouble?"
"I have to draw something abstract, but I don't even know how. How do you draw something that isn't concrete or physical?"
He pulled up a chair, slow as always. "I understand that could be tricky. You can't hold anything abstract or trip over it in the dark, but you can still feel it in some ways."
"Like what?"
"Like courage. Like the feeling you got when your team finally won on Saturday. Like a tune you can't quite hum but somehow adore."
Nadia frowned. "How do you draw a feeling?"
"You don't draw the thing. You draw what it does to you."
She thought about Saturday — the whistle, the leap, the roar from the stands. Her pencil started moving on its own. Spirals. Jagged orange lightning. A burst of colour that didn't look like anything and looked like everything.
When she finished, it wasn't a goal or a pitch or a crowd. It was an abstract mess that made her chest go warm all over again.
Grandad studied it for a long moment. "That's joy."
"It is," she said, amazed he could see something so impossible to touch.
Word Definition
abstract
meaning
existing as an idea, not concrete or physical
synonyms
theoretical · conceptual · unreal · philosophical · metaphysical
antonyms
real · physical · tangible
example sentence
The concept is abstract and difficult to explain clearly.