Definition of Concrete Words
Definition of Concrete Words
Definition of Concrete Words
Can you hear 'love' or taste 'disappointment'? If so, you might want to see a doctor because we can't
normally hear or taste emotions. That's because these words are abstract, meaning we can't see,
smell, hear, taste, or touch them. Concrete words, on the other hand, are terms that identify things
and events that can be measured and observed.
Let's take the word 'concrete', for instance. How do you know the sidewalk is hard? Of course you
can feel its measurably firm and rigid qualities beneath your feet, and your face would definitely
figure that out if you tripped. In other words, your understanding of 'concrete' is based on
observation of its physical characteristics. However, if you were asked how you knew your parents
loved you, there would undoubtedly be a wide variety of answers. This is because 'love' has no
physical characteristics that can be measured or observed. With abstracts like 'love' or 'patriotism',
we can only hope to detect the effects of the terms, and even those effects stand a good chance of
being abstract themselves. For instance, 'happiness' as an effect of 'love'.
Because concrete words are tangible in some way, their definitions are not subject to much change
through personal interpretation. For example, you and someone from Alaska would both know what
a 'chair' was if you saw one. And there would be little debate that grass is 'green' (though you might
get some squabbles over the shade). Conversely, abstract words possess just about as many different
interpretations as there are people. 'Disobedience', for instance, can take on all sorts of individual
forms, from public protests to not finishing your peas.