(1) the milliliters of a gas at standard temperature and pressure that will saturate 100 mL of liquid; (2) the amount of light absorbed in passing through 1 cm of a 1 molar solution of a given substance, expressed as a constant in Beer-Lambert law; Cf.: specific absorption coefficient (3) a measure of the rate of decrease of intensity of an x-ray beam in its passage through a substance, resulting from a combination of scattering and conversion to other forms of energy.