noun. A method of chemical analysis in which a sample of a substance is exposed to electromagnetic radiation, and the amount of radiation absorbed is measured to determine the chemical composition or concentration of the substance.

noun. Analysis using an absorptiometer.

"In the current study, rather than using other potentially biased methods employed in the past as "gold standards" to examine body composition, researchers used dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry, which is a low dose x-ray known as DXA, to determine percent fat."