Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The act or process of absorbing or the condition of being absorbed.
- n. A state of mental concentration.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The act or process of absorbing, or the state of being absorbed, in all the senses of the verb: as— The act or process of imbibing, swallowing, or engulfing mechanically.
- n. In physiology, the process of taking up into the vascular system (venous or lymphatic) either food from the alimentary canal or inflammatory products and other substances from the various tissues. Plants absorb moisture and nutritive juices principally by their roots, but sometimes by their general surfaces, as in seaweeds, and carbonic acid by their leaves. Absorption of organic matter by leaves takes place in several insectivorous plants.
- n. In Herbart's pedagogic system, the gradual process of the apprehension of the manifold: a translation of the German vertiefung. Otherwise called concentration and self-estrangement.
- n. Specifically— In the absorption of gases, the volume of a gas which one volume of a liquid will dissolve.
- n. In optics, the constant K in the equation , where A0 is the amplitude of an incident ray, A1 its amplitude after penetrating to a depth of one wave-length in the absorbing medium, and e the base of natural logarithms.
Wiktionary
- n. The act or process of absorbing or of being absorbed as,
- n. electrical engineering The retaining of electrical energy for a short time after it has been introduced to the dielectric.
- n. The taking on of by a shipping company of special charges by another without price increase.
- n. The natural lessening of radio waves due to atmospheric interference.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The act or process of absorbing or sucking in anything, or of being absorbed and made to disappear.
- n. (Chem. & Physics) An imbibing or reception by molecular or chemical action
- n. (Physiol.) In living organisms, the process by which the materials of growth and nutrition are absorbed and conveyed to the tissues and organs.
- n. Entire engrossment or occupation of the mind.
WordNet 3.0
- n. the mental state of being preoccupied by something
- n. complete attention; intense mental effort
- n. (chemistry) a process in which one substance permeates another; a fluid permeates or is dissolved by a liquid or solid
- n. the social process of absorbing one cultural group into harmony with another
- n. (physics) the process in which incident radiated energy is retained without reflection or transmission on passing through a medium
- n. the process of absorbing nutrients into the body after digestion
Etymologies
- Latin absorptiō, absorptiōn-, from absorptus, past participle of absorbēre, to absorb; see absorb. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“It is only when _absorption_ takes place that heat is thus produced: and heat is always a result of absorption.”
Six Lectures on Light Delivered In The United States In 1872-1873
“Skin absorption is more likely to occur if you use highly concentrated formulas of DEET, if it is applied to broken or irritated skin; or with repeated applications.”
“Administration of substances that absorb toxins and further prevent their absorption is also useful in early cases.”
The Huffington Post: Dr. Richard Palmquist: Pet Owners Beware: This Common Sweetener Can Poison Dogs
“I think that calorie consumption rather than calorie absorption is the common understanding of “calories in.””
“We can assume that Alutsista problem was not caused by limited budget, but also because the budget's absorption is low.”
Global Voices in English » Indonesia: Deteriorating Primary Defense Weapon System
“Seemingly united around shared values of localism and diversity, one hates to think that behind the solidarity is a plan for the long-term absorption of all licenses outside the master ship.”
The Huffington Post: Tracy Rosenberg: College Radio: You Will Be Assimilated
“LOGO's "The A-List" does its humble part for gay equality by showing that self-absorption is open to all regardless of sexual orientation!”
The Huffington Post: Bryan Safi: Trashy Reality TV Goes Gay! (VIDEO)
“The downside of incomplete absorption is that - and here's the alcohol part - sugar alcohols can ferment in the intestines and cause bloating, gas or diarrhea if you ingest more than 50 grams, but is possible in as little as 10 grams.”
“I agree that the reader's absorption is a measure of good writing.”
“The fact that it uses the specific frequency in which oxygen absorption is the highest limits signal propagation to only a few feet and keeps the signal in the same room, so it will work great for same-room video streaming.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘absorption’.
-
-tion
vacation, suggestion, donation, condition, education, examination, federation, generation, imagination, invention, operation, pollution and 166 more...
-
EU Buzz - ALL words and expressions
A combined list of
1. EU Buzz - single words
2. EU Buzz - collocations
3. EU Buzz - the 100 most active
collocation constituentsabsorption capacity, absorption rate, acceding country, accession candidate, accession countries, accession country, accession criteria, accession cycle, accession negotia..., accession partner..., accession priorities, accession treaty and 2650 more...
-
Tourism Department. Unit 4
takeover, merger, reach, profit, challenge, holidaymakers, saturation, profitability, significant, sign, signature, success and 36 more...
-
big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
-
5000 FREE SAT Words
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 229 more...
-
Just 'cause I like 'em, A
abaculus, abacus, abaft, abarticular, abbreviate, abeyance, abiding, anthocyanin, antemeridian, arcane, adjure, adduce and 418 more...
-
my dictionary
able, abnormally, abroad, absent, abstract, acceptable, acceptance, access, accessible, accession, according to, account and 4551 more...
-
A few of my favorite definitions from...
I'm especially fond of ones written by Charles Sanders Peirce.
theodolite, illusion, buckie, frank, abstract-concrete, semidiagrammatic, object-object, vortex-filament, dod, parrock, cobler, weather-box and 354 more...
-
Words I assumed I had not been misspe...
Catching a misspelling is both pleasurable (hooray learning!) and painful (every sentence you now realize you've ever marred with the offending word flashes to mind in one terrible instant).
...separate, exercise, a lot, all right, cemetery, consensus, supersede, playwright, noticeable, perseverance, medieval, gauge and 88 more...
-
Abstraction
Don't mind me--just trying to get at the essence of something.
abstraction, distillation, essence, predicate abstrac..., refining, purification, extraction, expression, maceration, absorption, sublation, sublimation and 4 more...
-
acadiana
gumbo, fais dodo, jambalaya, sha, bebe, bayou, atchafalaya, louisiana, two-step, opalousa, port arthur, beaumont and 17 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for absorption.
ruzuzu "4. In Herbart's pedagogic system, the gradual process of the apprehension of the manifold: a translation of the German vertiefung. Otherwise called concentration and self-estrangement."
--Century Dictionary Feb 11, 2011