In this paper, we show that Orlicz–Sobolev spaces $$W^{1,\varphi }(\varOmega )$$
W
1
,
φ
(
Ω
)
can be characterized with the ACL- and ACC-characterizations. ACL stands for absolutely continuous on lines and ACC for absolutely continuous on curves. Our results hold under the assumptions that $$C^1(\varOmega )$$
C
1
(
Ω
)
functions are dense in $$W^{1,\varphi }(\varOmega )$$
W
1
,
φ
(
Ω
)
, and $$\varphi (x,\beta ) \ge 1$$
φ
(
x
,
β
)
≥
1
for some $$\beta > 0$$
β
>
0
and almost every $$x \in \varOmega $$
x
∈
Ω
. The results are new even in the special cases of Orlicz and double phase growth.