1. a measure of the capacity of a substance to absorb light of a specified wavelength
Usage: physics; chemistry

Examples

• The spectrophotometer measured the absorbance of the solution at 280 nanometers.
• Higher concentrations of the dye resulted in greater absorbance values.
• The lab report included a graph showing absorbance versus wavelength.
• Scientists use absorbance measurements to determine protein concentrations.
• The absorbance reading indicated that the sample contained significant amounts of the target compound.
• Beer’s law relates absorbance to the concentration and path length of a sample.