What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Absorbent vs Contact - What's the difference?

absorbent | contact |

As nouns the difference between absorbent and contact

is that absorbent is anything which absorbs while contact is the act of touching physically; being in close association.

As an adjective absorbent

is having the ability or tendency to absorb; able to soak up liquid easily; absorptive .

As a verb contact is

to touch; to come into physical contact with.

absorbent

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Having the ability or tendency to absorb; able to soak up liquid easily; absorptive.
    • Those paper towels were amazingly absorbent . That was quite a spill.

    Derived terms

    * absorbent ground * nonabsorbent

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Anything which absorbs.
  • * 1839 , , 1972, Forgotten Books, page 225,
    • In the Southern Ocean the winter is not so excessively cold, but the summer is far less hot, for the clouded sky seldom allows the sun to warm the ocean, itself a bad absorbent of heat: and hence the mean temperature of the year is low.
  • (physiology, pluralized, now, rare) The vessels by which the processes of absorption are carried on, as the lymphatics in animals, the extremities of the roots in plants.
  • (medicine) Any substance which absorbs and neutralizes acid fluid in the stomach and bowels, as magnesia, chalk, etc.; also a substance, e.g., iodine, which acts on the absorbent vessels so as to reduce enlarged and indurated parts.
  • (chemistry) A liquid used in the process of separating gases or volatile liquids, in oil refining.

    • References

    ----

    contact

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • The act of touching physically; being in close association.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1935, author= George Goodchild
    • , title=Death on the Centre Court, chapter=1 , passage=She mixed furniture with the same fatal profligacy as she mixed drinks, and this outrageous contact between things which were intended by Nature to be kept poles apart gave her an inexpressible thrill.}}
  • The establishment of communication (with).
  • *
    • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=1 , passage=In the old days, […], he gave no evidences of genius whatsoever. He never read me any of his manuscripts, […], and therefore my lack of detection of his promise may in some degree be pardoned. But he had then none of the oddities and mannerisms which I hold to be inseparable from genius, and which struck my attention in after days when I came in contact with the Celebrity.}}
  • A nodule designed to connect a device with something else.
  • Someone with whom one is in communication.
  • (label) A contact lens.
  • (label) A device designed for repetitive connections.
  • Contact juggling.
  • (mining) The plane between two adjacent bodies of dissimilar rock.
    • (Raymond)

    Derived terms

    * body contact * contact hitter * contactable * eye contact * first contact * golden contact * point of contact / POC

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To touch; to come into physical contact with.
    • The side of the car contacted the pedestrian.
  • To establish communication with something or someone
    • I am trying to contact my sister.