MEANING
1. The state or period of not being present where someone or something is expected.
2. The fact that something is missing, lacking, or does not exist in a particular situation.
Use it for
making a missing person’s presence felt; describing the silence after someone has gone; referring to a period away from a place; showing a familiar person no longer being thereNames both a missing presence and a lack of something, without assuming that the absence is permanent or caused by death. Writing functions: Emptiness / Absence.
Words that belong together
- someone’s prolonged absence
- absence from home
- conspicuous absence
- feel someone’s absence
On the page
His absence altered the sound of the house more than any funeral had.
During her absence, nobody had opened the curtains.
The absence of any fresh tracks disturbed her more than footprints would have.
He mistook her absence of tears for an absence of grief.
Word forms
- Base
- absence
Usage notes
Usually uncountable for a state or lack; countable for an occasion or period away: an absence, several absences. Patterns: absence from a place; absence of something. Register: neutral. Commonness: common (dictionary-informed qualitative editorial estimate; not a measured frequency).
Practice this word in a sentenceYour margin notes
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