absent
Americanadjective
verb (used with object)
-
absents,
present (3rd person singular)
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absented,
past participle, past
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absenting
present participle
preposition
adjective
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away or not present
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lacking; missing
-
inattentive; absent-minded
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
absentsimple
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absentssimple
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have absentedperfect
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has absentedperfect
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am absentingprogressive
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are absentingprogressive
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is absentingprogressive
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have been absentingperfect progressive
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has been absentingperfect progressive
Past
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absentedsimple
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had absentedperfect
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was absentingprogressive
-
were absentingprogressive
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had been absentingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of absent
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English, from Latin absent-, stem of absēns “being away,” present participle of abesse “to be away,” from ab- ab- + esse “to be”
Explanation
Absent means not there. If you absent yourself from class, you're marked as absent. If you have an absent parent, it means they don't live with you or take part in your care. Absent can also describe a state of mind, meaning "not all there" or "lost in thought." If you are absent from class on a test day, you will have to explain your absence, unless your teacher is so absent minded she forgets and just gives you an A.
Vocabulary lists containing absent
Education and Academics, List 2
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Module 3: Assessed Vocabulary Guide
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Lacking
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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:
State Controller Malia Cohen sponsored Assembly Bill 1447, which seeks to define the process for California to take custody of securities when the owner is deemed absent.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 24, 2026
Together they read and discuss some of their absent host’s collection of Greek and Latin classics, including Seneca’s “Trojan Women” and Ovid’s “Metamorphoses.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026
Maybe someday I’d have the opportunity to give those letters to my grandchildren when they were old enough to understand why they had an absent grandfather.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 21, 2026
In May, Baptiste sent the group of athletes he coached a short message saying he would be absent from training "for a while".
From BBC ● Aug. 19, 2026
Some members of the Hill were noticeably absent, including Valley’s father and the Dimblewits.
From "Witchlings" by Claribel A. Ortega
In the mode of Katherine Boo and Adrian Nicole LeBlanc, Flock absents herself from the narrative, allowing us to enter the lives of her subjects and witness moments of almost unbearable intimacy.
From New York Times ● Feb. 13, 2018
I don’t think there is much of a risk of default in the very near term but clearly if it absents official financing then it becomes more of a concern.
From The Guardian ● Apr. 4, 2016
Sinclair, whose prose is famously so eloquent, is here smilingly reticent, and somewhat disconcertingly absents himself before the trip is quite finished – to catch a plane.
From The Guardian ● Jul. 19, 2012
Eddie, her husband, decides that after all Patricia likes the surgeon best; to facilitate her leaving him, he absents himself from home.
From Time Magazine Archive
Les absents ont toujours tort; and the converse of the proverb seemed to him to be equally true—the present are always right.
From A Search For A Secret (Vol 1 of 3) A Novel by G. A. (George Alfred) Henty
“The evidence demonstrates that he did not control Oracle, and that he absented himself from the acquisition of NetSuite,” the judge wrote.
From Seattle Times ● May 12, 2023
Interestingly, one of the other very senior Likud figures, Yuli Edelstein, who had been chair of the Knesset—which is a position equivalent to speaker of the House—for many years, had absented himself.
From Slate ● Mar. 28, 2023
But should Duncan, as Steinbach suggested, have chosen to turn down the Federalist Society’s invitation and voluntarily absented himself from Stanford’s campus?
From Washington Post ● Mar. 27, 2023
Other advisers have simply absented themselves at a time when the president is particularly unsteady.
From New York Times ● Dec. 23, 2020
This work was strictly voluntary, but any animal who absented himself from it would have his rations reduced by half.
From "Animal Farm: A Fairy Story" by George Orwell
"He is deliberately manipulating the court and voluntarily absenting himself."
From BBC ● Apr. 8, 2025
He focused on personal priorities like criminal justice reform, and he jousted with rivals in a factionalized West Wing while absenting himself at key moments, to the frustration of colleagues.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 8, 2022
If you can convince him, then he will come to realize that your absenting yourself truly is the easiest solution.
From Washington Post ● Jun. 2, 2022
Rather, when Fleabag is talking to the audience, she is noticeably absenting herself from her real life.
From Slate ● May 16, 2019
Finding out that it wasn’t, that in fact the last entries were dated, she kept count of the number of days I was absenting myself from school.
From "Kaffir Boy: An Autobiography" by Mark Mathabane
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.
