absent
Americanadjective
-
away or not present
-
lacking; missing
-
inattentive; absent-minded
verb
Other Word Forms
- absentation noun
- absenter noun
- absentness noun
- nonabsentation noun
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”
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.
With her husband so frequently absent, child-rearing fell almost entirely to Frances, who proved a loving but possessive mother.
Despite this, most research on the brain’s reward system has treated pleasure as something that is either present or absent, rather than something that exists along a spectrum.
From Science Daily
The ex-leader's supporters rallied in Caracas on Saturday but the demonstrations were far smaller than Maduro's camp had mustered in the past, and top figures from his government were notably absent.
From Barron's
While park runs, trail runs and marathons boom in popularity among the masses, cross-country appetite from the general public is almost entirely absent, likely influenced by those negative schoolday connotations.
From BBC
The pass was close to Chushul airstrip, which was "the primary nervous centre at a time when road network connecting the region with the rest of India was largely absent", Yadav says.
From BBC
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.
