immersion

views updated May 18 2018

im·mer·sion / iˈmərzhən; -shən/ • n. the action of immersing someone or something in a liquid: his back was still raw from immersion in the icy Atlantic Ocean. ∎  deep mental involvement: his total immersion in Marxism. ∎  a method of teaching a foreign language by the exclusive use of that language, usually at a special school. ∎  baptism by immersing a person bodily (but not necessarily completely) in water. ∎  rare Astron. the disappearance of a celestial body in the shadow of or behind another. See also emersion.

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