dense

English

Etymology

From Middle French dense, from Latin densus.

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. B. Maxwell, chapter 13, in The Mirror and the Lamp:

     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 Wikipedia article on dense sets for mathematical definition.

   Antonym: meager

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

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

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

Antonyms

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

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 (hustý), шчы́льны (ščýlʹny)
• Bengali: ঘন (bn) (ghôn)
• Bulgarian: гъст (bg) (gǎst), плъ̀тен (bg) (plǎ̀ten)
• Burmese: ထူ (my) (htu)
• Catalan: dens (ca)
• Chinese:

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

• Czech: hustý (cs)
• Danish: kompakt, tæt
• Dutch: dicht (nl)
• Esperanto: densa
• Estonian: tihe
• Finnish: tiheä (fi)
• French: dense (fr)
• Galician: denso
• 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 (kk) (qalıñ)
• Khmer: ជុក (km) (cuk), ក្រាស់ (km) (krah)
• Korean: 짙다 (ko) (jitda)
• Kyrgyz: калың (ky) (kalıñ), жыш (ky) (cış)

• Lao: ຖີ່ (thī), ແໜ້ນ (nǣn), ທຶບ (thưp)
• Latin: dēnsus
• Latvian: blīvs
• Lithuanian: tankus, tirštas
• Macedonian: густ (gust)
• Malay: padat (ms), tebal
• Maori: pururua (of vegetation), whakaapi, apiapi
• Mongolian: нягт (mn) (njagt)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: tett

• Occitan: dens
• 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)
• 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)

compact; crowded together

• Armenian: խիտ (hy) (xit), թանձր (hy) (tʿanjr)
• Bulgarian: плъ̀тен (bg) (plǎ̀ten), компа́ктен (bg) (kompákten)
• Czech: hustý (cs)
• Danish: tæt
• Finnish: tiheä (fi), tiivis (fi), taaja (fi), sankka (fi)
• Galician: compacto
• 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)
• 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) (tʿanjr)
• Bulgarian: гъст (bg) (gǎst)
• Danish: tæt
• Finnish: tiheä (fi), tiivis (fi)
• Galician: denso
• German: dicht (de)
• Italian: ^{(please verify)} denso (it)
• Macedonian: густ (gust)

• Maori: pururua (of vegetation)
• 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) (tʿanjr)
• 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, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. 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

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Esperanto

Etymology

From densa +‎ -e.

Adverb

dense

1. densely

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French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin densus.

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 (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

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Italian

Adjective

dense

1. Feminine plural of adjective denso.

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Latin

Etymology

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

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

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Spanish

Verb

dense

1. Compound of the second-person plural (ustedes) imperative form of dar, den and the pronoun se.