immerse
Americanverb (used with object)
-
immerses,
present (3rd person singular)
-
immersed,
past participle, past
-
immersing
present participle
verb
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(often foll by in) to plunge or dip into liquid
-
to involve deeply; engross
to immerse oneself in a problem
-
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
-
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
-
is immersingprogressive
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have been immersingperfect progressive
-
has been immersingperfect progressive
Past
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immersedsimple
-
had immersedperfect
-
was immersingprogressive
-
were immersingprogressive
-
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:
“AI can give me a way to both more fully develop, and more fully immerse myself in, IP I have developed,” she said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 29, 2026
Miyazaki’s tales also tend to immerse us in supernatural domains existing parallel to our own, as if reality masks more ethereal, life-affirming realms.
From Salon ● Jul. 30, 2026
By all means immerse yourself in Harmonia Mundi’s fine tribute.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 28, 2026
“I like to immerse myself and have a real experience and hopefully make it funny so it’s like a spoonful of sugar for the audience as they learn something.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 25, 2026
"You will immerse once, then twice," she instructs me.
From "What the Night Sings" by Vesper Stamper
All this she expresses in deceptively simple, occasionally mannered prose that draws readers in and immerses them in her fictional worlds.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 5, 2026
But what’s most gripping about this thorough, scholarly survey is that it immerses viewers in the Celtic aesthetic.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 29, 2026
"It immerses you in that fantasy," Alia says, describing it as a form of escapism.
From BBC ● Feb. 6, 2026
Mr. Frankel is most convincing when he avoids bold statements, however, and instead immerses himself in the skulduggery of Kansas City politics or the treacherous demimonde of Hollywood.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 23, 2026
His father takes his hand and holds him while he immerses him completely in the muddy water and quickly pulls him back up, dripping.
From "The Serpent King" by Jeff Zentner
This is about recharging and being immersed in my culture.
From BBC ● Aug. 30, 2026
Kicking over the traces of domesticity, Aurore left her family for the capital in 1831 and quickly immersed herself in Paris’s bustling literary scene.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026
But the other difference is that Goode has spent his entire life immersed in the world of reptiles, starting long before he even contemplated making a documentary.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 6, 2026
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
I type in a few commands and strip away the visuals of the screenshot, so that I’m now immersed inside reams of code.
From "Warcross" by Marie Lu
Under Dhanraj Master, he studied Western music, mastering the guitar and piano while immersing himself in Bach, Beethoven, Mozart and Schubert.
From BBC ● Jun. 6, 2026
Authors Ron Currie and David Heska Wanbli Weiden both return to their singular protagonists with narratives that deepen their legends by immersing readers in overlooked communities.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 12, 2026
The project, led by the Las Virgenes Municipal Water District and OceanWell Co., involves immersing pods the size of school buses into the ocean, more than 1,200 feet down.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 16, 2026
"We can levitate objects against gravity by immersing them in a sound field called a standing wave."
From Science Daily ● Mar. 22, 2026
Harry heard Hermione gasp, and he had the odd sensation that something was swooping low over him, immersing his body in its shadow.
From "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" by J.K. Rowling
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.
