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
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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
-
had immersedperfect
-
was immersingprogressive
-
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:
People can type on a digital keyboard, play games and immerse themselves in a concert or basketball game as they watch a massive screen through the glasses.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 24, 2026
“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
The entertainment company combines movie screenings with live theatre performances and themed environments, allowing audiences to immerse themselves in their favourite stories.
From BBC ● Aug. 6, 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
She hadn’t been home very long before she decided that she ought to go back to Europe, this time to Germany, where she could immerse herself in the study of German lieder.
From "The Voice That Challenged a Nation: Marian Anderson and the Struggle for Equal Rights" by Russell Freedman
“It really immerses you into the intensity of these films, where you’re up close and personal with these characters.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 30, 2026
"It immerses you in that fantasy," Alia says, describing it as a form of escapism.
From BBC ● Feb. 6, 2026
Her 2011 novel “Salvage the Bones,” set in Mississippi during Hurricane Katrina, immerses the reader in a world full of suffering but telegraphs something profound about human dignity and care.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 30, 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
They placed the lenses over rabbit eyeballs immersed in a saline solution intended to mimic natural tears.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 29, 2026
Spanning five decades and installed chronologically, it features work from the 26 years she spent immersed in Venice’s creative community even as her practice was largely ignored.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 21, 2026
She then immersed herself in the Social Democratic party, whose youth league she joined when she was 16.
From Barron's ● Sep. 17, 2026
Visitors to the festival have been immersed in live music sessions, interactive workshops, dance classes and pop-up pubs for the past seven days.
From BBC ● Aug. 9, 2026
I have always identified most strongly with Nick Carraway, the keen observer and narrator, a man both detached from and immersed in the events of the book.
From "Drama High" by Michael Sokolove
Flores describes “Ritchie Forever” as a “multimedia experience, going back in time with sound and immersing in the history.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 18, 2026
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
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
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.
