"absent in" or "absent from": word usage and prepositions

Question

Notably, a term x is absent in/from Eq. (4).

After consulting Gartner and online common use, I remain confused about how to decide which the correct preposition to use should be?

For my colleague, it was self-evident that it should be "in," but perhaps someone can help explain how one could reason this?

Sieni Campos · Answer

Let me try the explanation I came up with for myself:

"absent from" would indicate "should be there but is not": the student is absent from school today.
"absent in" would indicate "this trait / element/ etc." is not a part of something: fear of death is absent in many African religions.

"absent in" or "absent from": word usage and prepositions

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