What does absorbent mean?

Today in our science lesson we looked at what the word absorbent means.

We found out that an absorbent material soaks up water.

We planned and carried out an experiment to compare what material was most absorbent. We used three types of paper – kitchen towel, paper towel and plain paper. We placed each in water (dyed red) for one minute. We then measured which paper soaked up the most water. This photo shows our results. Which is the most absorbent? Why do you think this is?