absent

Q: What does "absent" mean?

1. (not present) not in a place, especially when you are expected to be there like at school or work. 2. (not paying attention) showing that you are thinking about something else and not looking at what is happening now. 3. (to stay away) to choose not to go to a place where you should be. 4. (without) a formal way to say 'without' or 'if something is not there'.

Q: Is it correct to say "He was absent at the meeting."?

No — say "He was absent from the meeting.". The adjective 'absent' typically takes the preposition 'from' to indicate the place or event missed.

Word

01not present

A2 · Elementary

adj. not in a place, especially when you are expected to be there like at school or work.

adj. not present in a specific location or at a scheduled event.

“Several students were absent from class today because of the flu.”

“The manager noted that the employee had been absent from several key briefings without providing a valid medical certificate.”

Synonyms

away missing gone

Antonyms

present attending

02not paying attention

B2 · Upper Intermediate

adj. showing that you are thinking about something else and not looking at what is happening now.

adj. exhibiting a lack of attention to immediate surroundings; preoccupied or distracted.

“He had an absent look on his face as if he were dreaming.”

“She answered the phone with an absent nod, her mind clearly still occupied by the complex data on her screen.”

Synonyms

distracted vague dreamy

Antonyms

alert attentive

03to stay away

C1 · Advanced Formal

v. to choose not to go to a place where you should be.

v. to deliberately refrain from attending or being present; almost exclusively used reflexively with a pronoun like 'himself' or 'themselves'.

“He decided to absent himself from the meeting to avoid the argument.”

“The board members were advised to absent themselves from the vote if they had a personal interest in the contract.”

Synonyms

withdraw stay away

Antonyms

attend appear

04without

C2 · Proficiency Law Formal · Technical

prep. a formal way to say 'without' or 'if something is not there'.

prep. functioning as a preposition meaning 'in the absence of' or 'lacking'.

“Absent any further evidence, the police had to let the man go.”

“Absent a clear directive from the head office, the local branch was unable to process the emergency funding request.”

Synonyms

without lacking

Antonyms

with given

Common phrases and expressions where native English speakers use the word “absent” in context.

Adjective

01. virtually absent

“In the remote mountain village, modern technology was virtually absent until the late 1990s.”

adv + adj

Typically follows a linking verb like 'be' or 'remain'; when used before a noun, it often describes a lack of attention.

He was absent at the meeting.

He was absent from the meeting.

The adjective 'absent' typically takes the preposition 'from' to indicate the place or event missed.

“One player who will be absent though is Scotland's Robert MacIntyre, who withdrew prior to the start of play on Friday with a knee injury.”

BBC News 14 Aug 2026

“There isn’t enough formal evidence of this problem – too few studies ask why people receive the type of care they do, rather than assume it’s due to absent alternatives.”

The Guardian 4 Aug 2026

From Middle English absent, by way of Middle French absent and Old French ausent. These derive from the Latin absens, the present participle of absum, which combines the roots ab, meaning away, and sum, meaning to be.

From Middle English absenten, by way of Old French absenter, from the Late Latin absentāre. The term is recorded in the sense of keeping or being away.

Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

NOUN

ADJECTIVE

absent(C1)

ADVERB

absently(B2)

absenteeism nothing