Absorption

How to spell absorption

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce absorption

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does absorption mean?

1. nounThe process by which one substance soaks up or takes in another, such as a liquid, gas, or form of energy.
2. nounA state of being completely engrossed or mentally occupied by something.

Absorption in a sentence

• The kitchen towel was chosen for its rapid absorption of spills.

• Her total absorption in the report meant she missed the lunch bell.

• Vitamin absorption in the gut can be slowed by certain medications.

• The child's absorption in the puzzle kept him quiet for an hour.

Where does absorption come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin absorptio, a noun formed from the verb absorbere, which combined the prefix ab- (here meaning 'away' or 'in') with sorbere, meaning 'to suck in' or 'to swallow down'. The crucial detail for spelling is that the noun and the related forms were built on the Latin past participle absorptus, where the b hardened into a p before the t; that is exactly why we write 'absorb' with a b but 'absorption' with a p. English took the word in around the early seventeenth century, first for the physical drinking up of a liquid and then for the wider scientific senses in chemistry and physics. The same sorbere root survives in the related 'sorbet', a chilled drink or ice that you sip and swallow. Remembering that the Latin participle gave us a hard p is the surest way to avoid the very common misspelling 'absorbtion'.

How the word is built

• ab- (away, in)
• sorp (from Latin sorbere: to suck in, swallow)
• -tion (noun of action)