The optical absorption spectra of neodymium(III) butanoate, pentanoate, hexanoate, heptanoate and octanoate in 1-pentanol have been measured. This solvent has been chosen, because the neodymium(III) soaps are sufficiently soluble in it. A set of free-ion parameters is obtained by fitting the calculated energy levels against the experimental levels. The experimental dipole strengths of the transitions are determined from the absorption spectra and parameterised in terms of the Judd-Ofelt intensity parameters Omega(lambda) (lambda=2, 4, 6). The Omega(4) values go through a maximum for neodymium(III) hexanoate, whereas the Omega(2) parameter increases in the order butanoate