dense

English

Etymology

From Middle French dense, from Latin dēnsus, from Proto-Indo-European *dens- (“thick, dense”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, US) IPA^(key): /dɛns/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛns

Adjective

dense (comparative denser, superlative densest)

1. Having relatively high density.

   Synonym: solid

2. Compact; crowded together.

   Synonyms: compact, crowded, packed; see also Thesaurus:compact

   Antonyms: diffuse; see also Thesaurus:diffuse

3. Thick; difficult to penetrate.

   Synonyms: thick, solid

   Antonym: thin

   • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XIII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

     And Vickers launched forth into a tirade very different from his platform utterances. He spoke with extreme contempt of the dense stupidity exhibited on all occasions by the working classes. He said that if you wanted to do anything for them, you must rule them, not pamper them.

4. Opaque; allowing little light to pass through.

   Synonyms: cloudy, opaque; see also Thesaurus:opaque

   Antonyms: clear, diaphanous, see-through, translucent, transparent; see also Thesaurus:transparent, Thesaurus:translucent

5. Obscure, or difficult to understand.

   Synonyms: abstruse, difficult, hard, incomprehensible, obscure, tough; see also Thesaurus:incomprehensible

   Antonyms: clear, comprehensible, easy, simple, straightforward, understandable; see also Thesaurus:comprehensible

6. (mathematics, topology) Being a subset of a topological space that approximates the space well. See the Wikipedia article on dense sets for a mathematical definition.

   Antonym: meager

7. Slow to comprehend; of low intelligence. (of a person)

   Synonyms: dumb, slow, stupid, thick; see also Thesaurus:stupid

   Antonyms: bright, canny, intelligent, quick, quick-witted, smart; see also Thesaurus:intelligent

   • 2023 May 16, Cade Metz, “Microsoft Says New A.I. Shows Signs of Human Reasoning”, in The New York Times‎^[1], →ISSN:

     There are times when systems like GPT-4 seem to mimic human reasoning, but there are also times when they seem terribly dense. “These behaviors are not always consistent,” Ece Kamar, a Microsoft researcher, said.

Antonyms

• (antonym(s) of “crowded together”): diffuse, few and far between (of things as opposed to one thing), scattered, sparse, rarefied (scientific, to describe gases)

Derived terms

• dense array
• dense blazingstar
• dense-in-itself
• densen
• denseness
• densification
• densify
• densimeter
• electrodense
• equidense
• hyperdense
• hypodense
• isodense
• nondense
• overdense
• radiodense
• superdense
• ultradense
• underdense

 

Translations

having relatively high density

• Albanian: i dendur (sq)
• Arabic: كَثِيف (kaṯīf), غَلِيظ (ḡalīẓ)
• Armenian: խիտ (hy) (xit)
• Azerbaijani: qalın (az), sıx (az)
• Belarusian: густы́ (be) (hustý), шчы́льны (be) (ščýlʹny)
• Bengali: ঘন (bn) (ghon)
• Bhojpuri: घना (ghanā)
• Bulgarian: гъст (bg) (gǎst), плъ́тен (bg) (plǎ́ten)
• Burmese: ထူ (my) (htu)
• Catalan: dens (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 密 (zh) (mì), 稠密 (zh) (chóumì), 濃／浓 (zh) (nóng)

• Czech: hustý (cs)
• Danish: kompakt, tæt
• Dutch: dicht (nl)
• Esperanto: densa
• Estonian: tihe
• Even: ног (nog)
• Finnish: tiheä (fi)
• French: dense (fr)
• Galician: denso (gl), basto
• Georgian: ხშირი (xširi), მჭიდრო (mč̣idro)
• German: dicht (de)
• Greek: πυκνός (el) (pyknós)

  Ancient: πυκνός (puknós), σπιδνός (spidnós)

• Hebrew: עבות \ עָבֹת (he) ('avót)
• Hindi: घना (hi) (ghanā)
• Hungarian: sűrű (hu)
• Icelandic: þéttur (is)
• Irish: dlúth
• Italian: denso (it)
• Japanese: 濃い (ja) (こい, koi), 密 (ja) (mitsu)
• Kazakh: қалың (qalyñ)
• Khmer: ជុក (km) (cuk), ក្រាស់ (km) (krah)
• Korean: 짙다 (ko) (jitda)
• Kyrgyz: калың (ky) (kalıŋ), жыш (ky) (jış)
• Lao: ຖີ່ (thī), ແໜ້ນ (nǣn), ທຶບ (thưp)
• Latin: dēnsus
• Latvian: blīvs
• Lithuanian: tankus, tirštas
• Macedonian: густ (gust)
• Malay: padat (ms), tebal (ms)
• Maori: pururua (of vegetation), whakaapi, apiapi
• Middle English: sad
• Mongolian: нягт (mn) (njagt)
• Nanai: лугди (lugʒi)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: tett

• Occitan: dens (oc)
• Ottoman Turkish: قویو (koyu), یوغون (yoğun)
• Pashto: ټينګ (ṭing)
• Persian: چگال (fa) (čegâl), غلیظ (fa) (ğaliz)
• Polish: gęsty (pl), szczelny (pl)
• Portuguese: denso (pt)
• Romanian: dens (ro)
• Russian: густо́й (ru) (gustój) (viscous), пло́тный (ru) (plótnyj)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: гу̑ст

  Roman: gȗst (sh)

• Slovak: hustý
• Slovene: góst (sl)
• Sorbian:

  Lower Sorbian: gusty

• Spanish: denso (es)
• Swedish: tät (sv)
• Tajik: зич (zič), ғализ (ġaliz), ғафс (tg) (ġafs)
• Thai: แน่น (th) (nɛ̂n), ทึบ (th) (tʉ́p)
• Tibetan: མཐུག་པོ (mthug po)
• Turkish: yoğun (tr), sık (tr), kalın (tr)
• Turkmen: ýygjam, goýy
• Ukrainian: густи́й (uk) (hustýj), щі́льний (uk) (ščílʹnyj)
• Urdu: گهنا (ghanā)
• Uzbek: zich (uz), qalin (uz), tigʻiz (uz)
• Vietnamese: đặc (vi), dày đặc (vi), chặt (vi)
• Zazaki: qalın c

compact; crowded together

• Armenian: խիտ (hy) (xit), թանձր (hy) (tʻanjr)
• Bulgarian: плъ́тен (bg) (plǎ́ten), компа́ктен (bg) (kompákten)
• Czech: hustý (cs)
• Danish: tæt
• Finnish: tiheä (fi), tiivis (fi), taaja (fi), sankka (fi)
• Galician: compacto (gl), basto
• German: dicht (de)
• Greek:

  Ancient: πυκνός (puknós)

• Hiligaynon: garót, magarót
• Italian: ^{(please verify)} denso (it)
• Latin: spissus
• Macedonian: збиен (zbien)
• Maori: apiapi, whakaapi, whakaapi, pururua (of vegetation)
• Middle English: sad
• Pashto: ګڼ (gëṇ)
• Polish: zwarty (pl), zbity (pl)
• Portuguese: compacto (pt), denso (pt)
• Russian: пло́тный (ru) (plótnyj), компа́ктный (ru) (kompáktnyj)
• Sorbian:

  Lower Sorbian: gusty

• Spanish: compacto (es), macizo (es)
• Swedish: tät (sv), kompakt (sv)
• Vietnamese: dày (vi), dày đặc (vi)

thick; difficult to penetrate

• Armenian: խիտ (hy) (xit), թանձր (hy) (tʻanjr)
• Bulgarian: гъст (bg) (gǎst)
• Danish: tæt
• Finnish: tiheä (fi), tiivis (fi)
• Galician: denso (gl)
• German: dicht (de)
• Italian: ^{(please verify)} denso (it)
• Macedonian: густ (gust)
• Maori: pururua (of vegetation)
• Middle English: sad
• Portuguese: denso (pt), espesso (pt)
• Russian: густо́й (ru) (gustój)
• Slovene: góst (sl)
• Sorbian:

  Lower Sorbian: gusty

• Spanish: denso (es), espeso (es)

opaque; allowing little light to pass through

• Armenian: թանձր (hy) (tʻanjr)
• Bulgarian: непрозра́чен (bg) (neprozráčen)
• Finnish: tiheä (fi), tiivis (fi)
• German: dicht (de)
• Italian: ^{(please verify)} denso (it)
• Russian: непрозра́чный (ru) (neprozráčnyj)
• Spanish: denso (es), tupido (es) (a forest)

obscure, or difficult to understand

• Finnish: hämärä (fi)
• French: obscur (fr)
• German: dicht (de)
• Italian: pastoso (it), ^{(please verify)} denso (it)
• Spanish: obscuro (es), enigmático (es)

math: being a well-approximating subset

• Danish: tæt
• Finnish: tiheä (fi)
• German: dicht (de)
• Italian: ^{(please verify)} denso (it)
• Polish: gęsty (pl)
• Spanish: (subconjunto) denso (es)

slow to comprehend; of low intelligence

• Bulgarian: тъп (bg) (tǎp), глупав (bg) (glupav)
• Finnish: pimeä (fi)
• French: bouché (fr)
• Hebrew: סָתוּם (he) (satúm) (slang)
• Italian: ^{(please verify)} denso (it)
• Polish: tępy (pl)
• Russian: тупо́й (ru) (tupój), глу́пый (ru) (glúpyj)
• Spanish: cabeza dura, menso (es)
• Swedish: trög (sv)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Hebrew: ^{(please verify)} צפוף (he) (tzafuf)
• Ido: ^{(please verify)} densa (io)
• Mandarin: ^{(please verify)} 高密度的, ^{(please verify)} 浓密的; ^{(please verify)} 稠密的; ^{(please verify)} 密集的; ^{(please verify)} 不透明的; ^{(please verify)} 愚蠢的, ^{(please verify)} 理解能力差的
• Turkish: ^{(please verify)} yoğun (tr)

Noun

dense (plural denses)

1. A thicket.

Anagrams

• Denes, Edens, Sneed, denes, edens, needs, sende, sneed

Esperanto

Etymology

From densa +‎ -e.

Adverb

dense

1. densely

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin dēnsus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dɑ̃s/

• Audio:

  (file)

Adjective

dense (plural denses)

1. dense

Related terms

• condenser
• densité

Further reading

• “dense”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Italian

Adjective

dense f pl

1. feminine plural of denso

Latin

Etymology

From dēnsus (“dense, close, frequent”) +‎ -ē (adverbial suffix).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈden.seː/, [ˈd̪ẽːs̠eː]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈden.se/, [ˈd̪ɛnse]

Adverb

dēnsē (comparative dēnsius, superlative dēnsissimē)

1. closely, in rapid succession

Related terms

• dēnseō
• dēnsō
• dēnsus

 

References

• “dense”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “dense”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• dense in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.

Spanish

Verb

dense

1. third-person plural imperative of dar combined with se