noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   Absorbed radiation and incident radiation in a ratio format; a measurement that shows how well a surface absorbs radiation.
2. 2
   a measure of the rate of decrease in the intensity of electromagnetic radiation (as light) as it passes through a given substance; the fraction of incident radiant energy absorbed per unit mass or thickness of an absorber wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

absorbtanceabsorbtanceabsorption coefficientabsorption coefficientcoefficient of absorption

Etymology

Circa 20th century, from absorption + -ance.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.