absorbent

English

Pronunciation

• IPA: /əbsˈɔː(r)bənt/, SAMPA: /@bs'O:(r)b@nt/

• Audio (US)

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Etymology

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

Adjective

absorbent (comparative more absorbent, superlative most absorbent)

1. absorbing liquids; swallowing; absorptive.

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

Derived terms

• absorbent ground (painting) a ground prepared for a picture, chiefly with distemper, or water colors, by which the oil is absorbed, and a brilliance is imparted to the colors.
• nonabsorbent

Translations

absorbing

Bulgarian: попиващ (bg), поглъщащ (bg) Catalan: absorbent (ca) Dutch: absorberend (nl), wateropnemend (nl) Finnish: imukykyinen (fi) French: absorbant (fr) German: saugfähig (de) Interlingua: absorbente

Italian: assorbente (it) Latin: absorbens (la) Portuguese: absorvente (pt) Russian: абсорбирующий (ru) (absorbirújuščij), гигроскопичный (ru) (gigroskopíčnyj) Spanish: absorbente (es) Volapük: nüsugik (vo)

Noun

absorbent (plural absorbents)

1. Anything which absorbs.
   • 1839, Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the Beagle, 1972, Forgotten Books, page 225,

     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. (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.
3. (physiology, pluralized) The vessels by which the processes of absorption are carried on, as the lymphatics in animals, the extremities of the roots in plants.

Translations

anything which absorbs

Catalan: absorbent (ca) m.

Spanish: absorbente (es) m.

substance which absorbs and neutralizes acid fluid

Russian: абсорбент (ru) (absorbént) m.

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.

Translations to be checked

Bulgarian: поглътител French: absorbant (fr) m. Interlingua: absorbente (1)

Portuguese: absorvente m. (1)

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Catalan

Adjective

absorbent m. and f. (plural absorbents)

1. absorbent

Noun

absorbent m. (plural absorbents)

1. absorbent

Related terms

• absorbir

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French

Verb

absorbent

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

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Latin

Verb

absorbent

1. third-person plural present active indicative of absorbeō