At high laser intensities, otherwise transparent liquids can absorb strongly by the mechanism of multiphoton absorption. resulting in heating and temperature increases orders of magnitude greater than that from classical. low-intensity mechanisms. The use of multiphoton absorption provides a new mechanism for significant, controlled energy deposition in transparent liquids, which is important for a variety of laser-liquid technologies. This work develops a microscopically based model of heating during multiphoton absorption in liquids induced by high-intensity, short-pulse laser radiation. The dependence on laser pulse parameters and liquid properties is discussed, and purl water exposed to 266 nm laser radiation is investigated both theoretically and experimentally. A novel heating mechanism for water is proposed that uses multiple-wavelength laser pulses, and applications where multiphoton absorption may be incorporated are discussed.