absent
Americanadjective
-
away or not present
-
lacking; missing
-
inattentive; absent-minded
verb
Other Word Forms
- absentation noun
- absenter noun
- absentness noun
- nonabsentation noun
Etymology
Origin of absent
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English, from Latin absent-, stem of absēns “being away,” present participle of abesse “to be away,” from ab- ab- + esse “to be”
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.
While at the CDC, O’Neill was often absent, those officials said, and he deputized Beyda to run much of the agency’s day-to-day operations for him, people familiar with the matter said.
The true impact of the wet winter may not be visible until spring, when butterflies that usually fill hedgerows and gardens may be noticeably absent.
From BBC
“There’s one thing clearly absent in everything they said: that is the rule of law,” Gerhardt said.
From Salon
“And so they did,” remembered Leah, “joyous sounds, all over the hall … It was like the return of long absent friends, whose value … we had not sufficiently appreciated.”
From Literature
Many other large fund managers are consistently absent because they don’t check all of the boxes in the categories we consider.
From Barron's
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.
