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
-
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:
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
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
“Instead of reading ‘Gone with the Wind,’ I was happy to immerse myself in ‘Copper Ore Deposits in Chile,’” he wrote.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 22, 2026
Galileo also wanted to construct an object which would fully immerse but not sink—an object with the same specific gravity as water.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
"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
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
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
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
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
Attendees are encouraged to wear indigo, deep blue or violet colors to get fully immersed in the Sunday gathering on Aug. 9. 10-11 a.m.,
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 31, 2026
And that’s the result of a formidable quantity of skills acquired over half a century immersed in the rock ‘n’ roll trenches, whether as a listener, critic, producer, or active participant.
From Salon ● Jul. 29, 2026
During hydration breaks and at half-time, a large towel that has been immersed in ice-cold water is more effective.
From BBC ● Jul. 11, 2026
Her fingers wrinkled from being immersed in water and, perversely, her mouth dried up with thirst.
From "A Girl Named Disaster" by Nancy Farmer
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
In “I Am Not a Robot,” she amusingly explores “what this world-changing technology actually means for us and our children” by immersing herself in AI for a year.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 8, 2026
"We can levitate objects against gravity by immersing them in a sound field called a standing wave."
From Science Daily ● Mar. 22, 2026
But by immersing themselves in their favorite reading topics, they felt far away from their predicament, as if they had escaped.
From "The Bad Beginning" by Lemony Snicket
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.
