absorbent

English

Etymology

From Latin absorbēns, present active participle of absorbeō (“absorb”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /əbˈsɔː.bn̩t/, /əbˈzɔː.bn̩t/
• (US) IPA^(key): /æbˈsɔɹ.bn̩t/, /æbˈzɔɹ.bn̩t/, /əbˈsɔɹ.bn̩t/, /əbˈzɔɹ.bn̩t/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Adjective

absorbent (comparative more absorbent, superlative most absorbent)

1. Having the ability or tendency to absorb; able to soak up liquid easily; absorptive.

   Those paper towels were amazingly absorbent. That was quite a spill.

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

absorbent (plural absorbents)

1. Anything which absorbs.
   • 1839, Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the Beagle, page 225, Forgotten Books:

     In the Southern Ocean the winter is not so excessively cold, but the summer is far less hot, for the clouded sky seldom allows the sun to warm the ocean, itself a bad absorbent of heat: and hence the mean temperature of the year […] is low.

2. (physiology, pluralized, now rare) The vessels by which the processes of absorption are carried on, as the lymphatics in animals, the extremities of the roots in plants.
3. (medicine) Any substance which absorbs and neutralizes acid fluid in the stomach and bowels, as magnesia, chalk, etc.; also a substance, e.g., iodine, which acts on the absorbent vessels so as to reduce enlarged and indurated parts.
4. (physical chemistry) A liquid used in the process of separating gases or volatile liquids, in oil refining.

Descendants

• → Polish: absorbent
• → Norwegian Bokmål: absorbent

Translations

References

Catalan

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central)
• IPA^(key): (Balearic)
• IPA^(key): (Valencian)

Adjective

absorbent m or f (masculine and feminine plural absorbents)

1. absorbent

Noun

absorbent m (plural absorbents)

1. absorbent

Related terms

• absorbir

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ap.sɔʁ.bɑ̃/

• Audio

  (file)

Verb

absorbent

1. third-person plural present indicative/subjunctive of absorber

Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /abˈsor.bent/,
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /abˈsor.bent/,

Verb

absorbent

1. third-person plural present active indicative of absorbeō

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From English absorbent, from Latin absorbēns (“swallowing, absorbing”), present active participle of absorbeō (“absorb”), from both ab- (“from, away from, off”), from ab (“from, away from, on, in”), from Proto-Italic *ab, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂epó (“off, away”), + and from sorbeō (“I suck in, drink up”), from Proto-Italic *sorβeō (“to suck in”), from Proto-Indo-European *srobʰéyeti (“to be sipping, sucking”), from *srebʰ- (“to sip, gulp, suck (in)”) and *-éyeti, from *-yeti (creates transitive imperfective verbs).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /absɔrˈbɛnt/, /apsɔrˈbɛnt/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛnt
• Hyphenation: ab‧sor‧bent

Noun

absorbent m (definite singular absorbenten, indefinite plural absorbenter, definite plural absorbentene)

1. an absorbent or absorber (something which absorbs)
   • 1971, Teknisk Ukeblad:

     absorbenter eller reflektorer på vegger eller i tak

     absorbents or reflectors on walls or ceilings

Synonyms

• absorbator (“absorber, absorbent”)

References

• “absorbent” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
• “absorbent” in Det Norske Akademis ordbok (NAOB).
• “absorbent” in Store norske leksikon

Polish

Polish Wikipedia has an article on:

absorbent

Wikipedia ^pl

Etymology

Borrowed from English absorbent, from Latin absorbēns. First attested in 1925.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /apˈsɔr.bɛnt/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔrbɛnt
• Syllabification: ab‧sor‧bent

Noun

absorbent m inan

1. (chemistry) absorbent, absorber (anything which absorbs)

   Synonyms: absorber, pochłaniacz

Declension

Related terms

See also

• adsorbent

References

Further reading

• absorbent in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• absorbent in Polish dictionaries at PWN
• absorbent in Narodowy Fotokorpus Języka Polskiego