Generalisation
Part of speech: noun
Definition: The formulation of general concepts from specific instances by abstracting common properties. Inductive reasoning from detailed facts to general principles.
Abstraction
Part of speech: noun
Definition: The act of abstracting, separating, or withdrawing, or the state of being withdrawn; withdrawal.The act of leaving out of consideration one or more properties of a complex object so as to attend to others; analysis.An idea or notion of an abstract, or theoretical nature; as, to fight for mere abstractions.A separation from worldly objects; a recluse life; as, a hermit's abstraction.Absence or absorption of mind; inattention to present objects.The taking surreptitiously for one's own use part of the property of another; purloining. - "[Modern]"A separation of volatile parts by the act of distillation. - NicholsonRemoval of water from a river, lake, or aquifer, typically for industrial or agricultural uses.Any generalization technique that ignores or hides details to capture some kind of commonality between different instances for the purpose of controlling the intellectual complexity of engineered systems, particularly software systems.Any intellectual construct produced through the technique of abstraction.
Example sentence: Things like anatomy and drawing and design and color had pretty much been drop-kicked out of the curriculum in the '70s, when I was studying art, in favor of abstraction and minimalism.