absentee
noun
Simple meaning
Designating something whose owner, person responsible.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
absuhnteeSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
æbsənˈti
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
A person who is absent from his or her employment, school, post, duty, etc.
attributive
Designating a person absent in a particular capacity, sometimes implying that they are difficult to contact, unresponsive, avoiding their responsibilities, etc.
A voter who is not present at the time of voting; absentee voter.
attributive
Designating something whose owner, person responsible, etc. is absent.
Something that is not present where it might be expected.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A person who is absent from his or her employment, school, post, duty, etc.
An 'absentee' is specifically a person who *should* be somewhere but isn't, often with a slight negative connotation of neglecting a duty. It's more formal than just saying 'someone who is absent.'
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where you'll really hear it
Workplace management
“We need to address the high number of absentees this quarter.”
Election reporting
“Absentee ballots arrived early for many out-of-state voters.”
School administration
“The principal called home about the chronic absentee.”
Where it naturally appears
- Business/professional
- Education/classroom
- Ethics/values
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.