immerse
Americanverb (used with object)
verb
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(often foll by in) to plunge or dip into liquid
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to involve deeply; engross
to immerse oneself in a problem
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to baptize by immersion
Synonym Usage
See dip 1.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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immersesimple
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immersessimple
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have immersedperfect
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has immersedperfect
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am immersingprogressive
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are immersingprogressive
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is immersingprogressive
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have been immersingperfect progressive
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has been immersingperfect progressive
Past
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immersedsimple
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had immersedperfect
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was immersingprogressive
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were immersingprogressive
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had been immersingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of immerse
First recorded in 1595–1605; from Latin immersus “plunged, sunken into,” past participle of immergere “to dip, plunge, sink into”; see immerge
Explanation
If you immerse yourself in your work, you completely involve yourself in it, spending long hours in the office and thinking about work all the time. Immerse can also mean to submerge in a liquid. A science experiment might tell you to immerse a piece of paper completely in water. If you are a swimmer immersed in a rigorous training regimen, you might be immersing yourself in the pool several times a day.
Vocabulary lists containing immerse
ACT Vocabulary List
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With the Fire on High
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"Speaking Up"
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
It will immerse you in the action, put you in the arena or the stadium and give you the best seat.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 12, 2026
Sometimes it really is as simple as putting on the wig or turning on a movie to immerse yourself in an experience beyond your own.
From Salon ● Jun. 22, 2026
"As a visitor, you can immerse yourself in a jungle, 30 degrees and 80% humidity, and wander round the park here, seeing butterflies from all over the world."
From BBC ● May 22, 2026
This arrangement will allow me to immerse myself without being tempted to stare at my phone when I’m with my kid.
From Slate ● May 10, 2026
My response to my problems was to immerse myself in literature.
From "Bad Boy" by Walter Dean Myers
"Rob is that kind of actor where he immerses himself so deeply you sort of don't know where he ends and the character begins," Evans said.
From BBC ● Feb. 24, 2026
Frank Dikötter is an iconoclast historian who immerses himself in the primary sources more thoroughly than any other Western scholar of 20th-century China.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 13, 2026
She said Boyce, now in his 70s, lives a solitary life and immerses himself in the world of falconry.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 29, 2025
This temporal blending, far from being a coldly experimental exercise, immerses us in the pure pleasure of storytelling, as light and free as those magical puppet shows Gomes occasionally returns to.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 27, 2025
The remote-pilot setting immerses the cockpit in a red glow.
From "The Last Cuentista" by Donna Barba Higuera
Many great filmmakers are immersed in the same ideas, returning to them in one way or another with each film.
From Salon ● Jul. 18, 2026
Until now, however, the same approach had not succeeded with molecules immersed in a superfluid.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 4, 2026
He says he immersed himself in the science and history of alternative medicine.
From BBC ● Jun. 28, 2026
The network has described it as a conscious decision to prioritize authenticity and keep viewers immersed.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 16, 2026
At times she sat cross-legged, at times with legs splayed, surrounded by an array of colanders and shallow bowls of water in which she immersed her chopped ingredients.
From "Interpreter of Maladies" by Jhumpa Lahiri
There has been no shortage of photos or clips on social media of the Scotland squad immersing themselves in the feel-good factor the Tartan Army have brought to Boston in the last number of days.
From BBC ● Jun. 15, 2026
She battled dyslexia and dropped out of high school and then the London College of Fashion before immersing herself in the working world of fashion.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 13, 2026
"We can levitate objects against gravity by immersing them in a sound field called a standing wave."
From Science Daily ● Mar. 22, 2026
He succeeds in showing their interior world, immersing us in the tensions and pleasures, griefs and passions of their days.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 12, 2026
So, instead, I went to Times Square, from movie house to movie house, immersing myself in westerns and horror movies—the way I used to.
From "Flowers for Algernon" by Daniel Keyes
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
