diff --git a/docs/content/manual/manual.yml b/docs/content/manual/manual.yml
index d629900f6b..8ad8029f67 100644
--- a/docs/content/manual/manual.yml
+++ b/docs/content/manual/manual.yml
@@ -854,6 +854,21 @@ sections:
             input: '[1,0,-1]'
             output: ['1', '-1']
 
+      - title: "`abs`"
+        body: |
+
+          The builtin function `abs` is defined naively as: `if . < 0 then - . else . end`.
+
+          For numeric input, this is the absolute value.  See the
+          section on the identity filter for the implications of this
+          definition for numeric input.
+
+          To compute the absolute value of a number as a floating point number, you may wish use `fabs`.
+
+        examples:
+          - program: 'map(abs)'
+            input: '[-10, -1.1, -1e-1]'
+            output: ['[10,1.1,1e-1]']
 
       - title: "`length`"
         body: |
diff --git a/jq.1.prebuilt b/jq.1.prebuilt
index e7d1a972c3..c72fad2ca7 100644
--- a/jq.1.prebuilt
+++ b/jq.1.prebuilt
@@ -838,6 +838,27 @@ jq \'\.[] | (1 / \.)?\'
 .
 .IP "" 0
 .
+.SS "abs"
+The builtin function \fBabs\fR is defined naively as: \fBif \. < 0 then \- \. else \. end\fR\.
+.
+.P
+For numeric input, this is the absolute value\. See the section on the identity filter for the implications of this definition for numeric input\.
+.
+.P
+To compute the absolute value of a number as a floating point number, you may wish use \fBfabs\fR\.
+.
+.IP "" 4
+.
+.nf
+
+jq \'map(abs)\'
+   [\-10, \-1\.1, \-1e\-1]
+=> [10,1\.1,1e\-1]
+.
+.fi
+.
+.IP "" 0
+.
 .SS "length"
 The builtin function \fBlength\fR gets the length of various different types of value:
 .
diff --git a/src/builtin.jq b/src/builtin.jq
index 45ba3060a3..e74e9771dc 100644
--- a/src/builtin.jq
+++ b/src/builtin.jq
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ def max_by(f): _max_by_impl(map([f]));
 def min_by(f): _min_by_impl(map([f]));
 def add: reduce .[] as $x (null; . + $x);
 def del(f): delpaths([path(f)]);
+def abs: if . < 0 then - . else . end;
 def _assign(paths; $value): reduce path(paths) as $p (.; setpath($p; $value));
 def _modify(paths; update):
     reduce path(paths) as $p ([., []];
diff --git a/tests/jq.test b/tests/jq.test
index 466d185099..c617055669 100644
--- a/tests/jq.test
+++ b/tests/jq.test
@@ -1808,6 +1808,23 @@ false
 1
 1
 
+# abs, fabs, length
+abs
+"abc"
+"abc"
+
+map(abs)
+[-0, 0, -10, -1.1]
+[0,0,10,1.1]
+
+map(fabs == length) | unique
+[-10, -1.1, -1e-1, 1000000000000000002]
+[true]
+
+# The following is NOT prescriptive:
+map(abs)
+[0.1,1000000000000000002]
+[1e-1, 1000000000000000002]
 
 # Using a keyword as variable/label name
 
diff --git a/tests/man.test b/tests/man.test
index cce2edb3f8..354043ba67 100644
--- a/tests/man.test
+++ b/tests/man.test
@@ -188,6 +188,10 @@ null
 1
 -1
 
+map(abs)
+[-10, -1.1, -1e-1]
+[10,1.1,1e-1]
+
 .[] | length
 [[1,2], "string", {"a":2}, null, -5]
 2