Absolute UV and VUV photoabsorption oscillator strengths (cross-sections) for the valence shell discrete and continuum regions of dimethyl ether (CH 3OCH 3, DME) have been measured from 5 to 32 eV using high resolution (HR) (∼0.05 eV f.w.h.m.) dipole (e,e) spectroscopy. A wide-range spectrum, spanning the UV, VUV and soft X-ray regions, from 5 to 200 eV has also been obtained at low resolution (LR) (∼1 eV f.w.h.m.), and this has been used to determine the absolute oscillator strength scale by employing valence shell Thomas–Reiche–Kuhn (i.e., S(0)) sum-rule normalization. The presently reported HR and LR absolute photoabsorption oscillator strengths are compared with previously published data from direct photoabsorption measurements in those limited energy regions where such data are available. Evaluation of the S(−2) sum using the presently reported absolute differential photoabsorption oscillator strength data gives a static dipole polarizability for dimethyl ether in excellent agreement (within 0.5%) with previously reported polarizability values. Other dipole sums S( u), ( u=−1,−3,−4,−5,−6,−8,−10), and logarithmic dipole sums L( u), ( u=−1 to −6), are also determined from the presently reported absolute differential photoabsorption oscillator strength data using dipole sum rules.