Absorb

How to spell absorb

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce absorb

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does absorb mean?

1. verbTo soak up or take in a liquid, energy, or information.

Absorb in a sentence

• Thick towels absorb water far better than thin ones.

• Dark surfaces absorb more heat from the sun than pale ones.

Where does absorb come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word descends from the Latin verb absorbere, formed from the prefix ab-, meaning 'away' or 'in', and sorbere, which literally meant 'to suck in' or 'to swallow down'. In its earliest Latin use it described the act of drinking something up entirely, and the sense of soaking up a liquid carried straight through into English. The word reached English in the fifteenth century, partly through Old French absorber and partly straight from the Latin, which is why the spelling keeps its tidy Latin shape. The same sorbere root survives in the rarer English word 'sorbent', the term for any material that soaks things up. A useful spelling note: although the final letter sounds like a soft 'b' and the middle 's' is voiced like a 'z', the word stays loyal to its Latin parts, so it ends in 'b' and keeps the 's', never a 'z' or a 'p'.

How the word is built

• ab- (from, in)
• sorb (from Latin sorbere: to suck in, swallow)