adj
Meaning 1
Having relatively high density.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: solid
Antonyms: none provided
Standard Lemma guide
dense
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Pronunciation
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
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/ˈdɛns/
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[ˈdɛns]
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US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
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/ˈdɪns/ Southern US, Appalachia, African-American Vernacular
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[ˈdɪ̟ns] Southern US, Appalachia, African-American Vernacular
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rhymes with -ɛns
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CMU ARPABET: D EH1 N S Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
adj
Meaning 2
Compact; crowded together.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: compact, crowded, packed, close, dense, solid, thick, tight
Antonyms: diffuse, dispersed, incompact, loose, noncompact, scattered, spaced out, sparse, spread out, thin, uncompact
adj
Meaning 3
Thick; difficult to penetrate.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: thick, solid
Antonyms: thin
adj
Meaning 4
Opaque; allowing little light to pass through.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: cloudy, opaque, adiaphanous, nontransparent, opacous, opacular, thick
Antonyms: clear, diaphanous, see-through, translucent, transparent, clear as crystal, crystalline, glassy, hyaline, hyaloid, limpid, lucid, pellucid, perspicuous, serene, transpicuous, vitreous, semitransparent, semipellucid, semiopaque, through-shine, tralucent
adj
Meaning 5
Obscure or difficult to understand.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: abstruse, difficult, hard, incomprehensible, obscure, tough, Chinese, dense, enigmatic, fathomless, Greek, inapprehensible, incognizable, ineffable, inenubilable, inexplicable, impenetrable, insensible, inscrutable, insoluble, insolvable, mysterious, nonunderstandable, retruse, tenebrose, thick, undecipherable, undiscoverable, unexplainable, unfathomable, ungraspable, unintelligible, unknowable, ununderstandable
Antonyms: clear, comprehensible, easy, simple, straightforward, understandable, apprehensible, limpid, explainable, explicable, explicatable, fathomable, graspable, illuminable, intelligible, lucid, pellucid, perspicuous, tangible
adj
Meaning 6
Such that its closure in T is T.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: not-comparable
Topics: mathematics, sciences, topology
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: meager
adj
Meaning 7
Slow to comprehend; of low intelligence. (of a person)
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: dumb, slow, stupid, thick, addlebrained, addlepated, airheaded, bee-brained, beef-witted, beefheaded, beetle-headed, birdbrained, blockheaded, Boeotian, boneheaded, boofheaded, braindead, brainless, bubbleheaded, buffle-headed, bullet-headed, cerebrally challenged, childish, chowderheaded, chuckleheaded, crackbrained, cretinous, daft, dense, dented, dim-bulb, dim-headed, dim-witted, dim, doltish, dopey, dozy, drowsy, dull-headed, dull-minded, dull-witted, dull, dumber than a box of rocks, dunderheaded, empty-headed, fatheaded, feeble-minded, flea-brained, foolish, fuzzy-headed, fuzzy-minded, goofy, half-brained, half-witted, hammer-headed, idiotic, ignorant, imbecilic, inane, insipid, intellectually challenged, knuckleheaded, lamebrained, lowbrow, lumpish, lunkheaded, mentally challenged, mentally retarded, mindless, monosynaptic, moronic, muttonheaded, nitwitted, numbskulled, oafish, obtuse, peabrained, pratty, pudding-headed, puerile, purblind, quarter-witted, retarded, ridiculous, rockheaded, sharp as a bowling ball, sheep-headed, silly, simple, slow on the uptake, slow-witted, smooth-brained, stolid, thick-skulled, thickheaded, thickwitted, unapprehensive, unclever, uninformed, unintelligent, unsmart, vacant, vacuous, witless, wooden-headed, wool-headed, woolly-headed, woolly-minded, dumb as a bag of hammers, dumb as a box of rocks, dumb as a doorknob, dumb as an ox, dumb as a post, dumb as a sack of hammers, dumb as dirt, dumber than a rock, not the sharpest crayon in the box, not the sharpest knife in the drawer, not the sharpest tool in the shed, thick as a brick, thick as a plank, thick as champ, thick as mince, thick as two short planks, thick as a whale omelette, ass-brained, fuckwitted, shit-for-brains, thick as pig shit
Antonyms: bright, canny, intelligent, quick, quick-witted, smart, astute, brainy, brilliant, clever, educated, genius, gifted, hivey, ingenious, intellectual, keen, knowledgeable, piquant, quick on the uptake, rational, sagacious, savvy, scholared, sharp, talented, whip-smart, wise
noun
Meaning 8
A thicket.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
adjective satellite
Meaning 9
slow to learn or understand; lacking intellectual acuity- Thackeray
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Examples
- so dense he never understands anything I say to him
- never met anyone quite so dim
- although dull at classical learning, at mathematics he was uncommonly quick
- dumb officials make some really dumb decisions
- he was either normally stupid or being deliberately obtuse
- worked with the slow students
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: dim, dull, dumb, obtuse, slow
Antonyms: none provided
adjective satellite
Meaning 10
having high relative density or specific gravity
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Examples
- dense as lead
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
adjective satellite
Meaning 11
hard to pass through because of dense growth
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Examples
- dense vegetation
- thick woods
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: thick
Antonyms: none provided
adjective satellite
Meaning 12
permitting little if any light to pass through because of denseness of matter
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Examples
- dense smoke
- heavy fog
- impenetrable gloom
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: heavy, impenetrable
Antonyms: none provided
History
Etymology
From Middle French dense, from Latin dēnsus, from Proto-Indo-European *dens- (“thick, dense”) (whence also Ancient Greek δασύς (dasús)).
Across languages
Translations
193 source translations are retained for this English entry.
- Albanian: i dendur — having relatively high density
- Arabic: كَثِيف (kaṯīf) — having relatively high density
- Arabic: غَلِيظ (ḡalīẓ) — having relatively high density
- Armenian: խիտ (xit) — having relatively high density
- Azerbaijani: qalın — having relatively high density
- Azerbaijani: sıx — having relatively high density
- Belarusian: густы́ (hustý) — having relatively high density
- Belarusian: шчы́льны (ščýlʹny) — having relatively high density
- Bengali: ঘন (ghon) — having relatively high density
- Bhojpuri: घना (ghanā) — having relatively high density
- Bulgarian: гъст (gǎst) — having relatively high density
- Bulgarian: плъ́тен (plǎ́ten) — having relatively high density
- Burmese: ထူ (htu) — having relatively high density
- Catalan: dens — having relatively high density
- Chinese Mandarin: 密 (mì) — having relatively high density
- Chinese Mandarin: 稠密 (chóumì) — having relatively high density
- Chinese Mandarin: 濃 /浓 (nóng) — having relatively high density
- Czech: hustý — having relatively high density
- Danish: kompakt — having relatively high density
- Danish: tæt — having relatively high density
- Dutch: dicht — having relatively high density
- Esperanto: densa — having relatively high density
- Estonian: tihe — having relatively high density
- Even: ног (nog) — having relatively high density
- Finnish: tiheä — having relatively high density
- French: dense — having relatively high density
- Galician: denso — having relatively high density
- Galician: basto — having relatively high density
- Georgian: ხშირი (xširi) — having relatively high density
- Georgian: მჭიდრო (mč̣idro) — having relatively high density
- German: dicht — having relatively high density
- Greek: πυκνός (pyknós) — having relatively high density
- Ancient Greek: πυκνός (puknós) — having relatively high density
- Ancient Greek: σπιδνός (spidnós) — having relatively high density
- Hebrew: עבות \ עָבֹת ('avót) — having relatively high density
- Hindi: घना (ghanā) — having relatively high density
- Hungarian: sűrű — having relatively high density
- Icelandic: þéttur — having relatively high density
- Irish: dlúth — having relatively high density
- Italian: denso — having relatively high density
- Japanese: 濃い (koi) — having relatively high density
- Japanese: 密 (mitsu) — having relatively high density
- Kazakh: қалың (qalyñ) — having relatively high density
- Khmer: ជុក (cuk) — having relatively high density
- Khmer: ក្រាស់ (krah) — having relatively high density
- Korean: 짙다 (jitda) — having relatively high density
- Kyrgyz: калың (kalıŋ) — having relatively high density
- Kyrgyz: жыш (jış) — having relatively high density
- Lao: ຖີ່ (thī) — having relatively high density
- Lao: ແຫນ້ນ (nǣn) — having relatively high density
- Lao: ທຶບ (thưp) — having relatively high density
- Latin: dēnsus — having relatively high density
- Latvian: blīvs — having relatively high density
- Lithuanian: tankus — having relatively high density
- Lithuanian: tirštas — having relatively high density
- Macedonian: густ (gust) — having relatively high density
- Malay: padat — having relatively high density
- Malay: tebal — having relatively high density
- Māori: pururua — having relatively high density
- Māori: whakaapi — having relatively high density
- Māori: apiapi — having relatively high density
- Middle English: sad — having relatively high density
- Mongolian: нягт (njagt) — having relatively high density
- Khiamniungan Naga: tèih — having relatively high density
- Nanai: лугди (lugʒi) — having relatively high density
- Norwegian Bokmål: tett — having relatively high density
- Occitan: dens — having relatively high density
- Pashto: ټينګ (ṭing) — having relatively high density
- Persian: چگال (čegâl) — having relatively high density
- Persian: غلیظ (ġaliz) — having relatively high density
- Polish: gęsty — having relatively high density
- Polish: szczelny — having relatively high density
- Portuguese: denso — having relatively high density
- Romanian: dens — having relatively high density
- Russian: густо́й (gustój) — having relatively high density
- Russian: пло́тный (plótnyj) — having relatively high density
- Serbo-Croatian: гу̑ст — having relatively high density
- Serbo-Croatian: gȗst — having relatively high density
- Slovak: hustý — having relatively high density
- Slovene: góst — having relatively high density
- Lower Sorbian: gusty — having relatively high density
- Spanish: denso — having relatively high density
- Swedish: tät — having relatively high density
- Tajik: зич (zič) — having relatively high density
- Tajik: ғализ (ġaliz) — having relatively high density
- Tajik: ғафс (ġafs) — having relatively high density
- Thai: แน่น (nɛ̂n) — having relatively high density
- Thai: ทึบ (tʉ́p) — having relatively high density
- Tibetan: མཐུག་པོ (mthug po) — having relatively high density
- Turkish: yoğun — having relatively high density
- Turkish: sık — having relatively high density
- Turkish: kalın — having relatively high density
- Ottoman Turkish: قویو (koyu) — having relatively high density
- Ottoman Turkish: یوغون (yoğun) — having relatively high density
- Turkmen: ýygjam — having relatively high density
- Turkmen: goýy — having relatively high density
- Ukrainian: густи́й (hustýj) — having relatively high density
- Ukrainian: щі́льний (ščílʹnyj) — having relatively high density
- Urdu: گهنا (ghanā) — having relatively high density
- Uzbek: zich — having relatively high density
- Uzbek: qalin — having relatively high density
- Uzbek: tigʻiz — having relatively high density
- Vietnamese: đặc — having relatively high density
- Vietnamese: dày đặc — having relatively high density
- Vietnamese: chặt — having relatively high density
- Zazaki: qalın — having relatively high density
- Armenian: խիտ (xit) — compact; crowded together
- Armenian: թանձր (tʻanjr) — compact; crowded together
- Bulgarian: плъ́тен (plǎ́ten) — compact; crowded together
- Bulgarian: компа́ктен (kompákten) — compact; crowded together
- Czech: hustý — compact; crowded together
- Danish: tæt — compact; crowded together
- Finnish: tiheä — compact; crowded together
- Finnish: tiivis — compact; crowded together
- Finnish: taaja — compact; crowded together
- Finnish: sankka — compact; crowded together
- Galician: compacto — compact; crowded together
- Galician: basto — compact; crowded together
- German: dicht — compact; crowded together
- Ancient Greek: πυκνός (puknós) — compact; crowded together
- Hiligaynon: garót — compact; crowded together
- Hiligaynon: magarót — compact; crowded together
- Latin: spissus — compact; crowded together
- Macedonian: збиен (zbien) — compact; crowded together
- Māori: apiapi — compact; crowded together
- Māori: whakaapi — compact; crowded together
- Māori: pururua — compact; crowded together
- Middle English: sad — compact; crowded together
- Pashto: ګڼ (gëṇ) — compact; crowded together
- Polish: zwarty — compact; crowded together
- Polish: zbity — compact; crowded together
- Portuguese: compacto — compact; crowded together
- Portuguese: denso — compact; crowded together
- Russian: пло́тный (plótnyj) — compact; crowded together
- Russian: компа́ктный (kompáktnyj) — compact; crowded together
- Lower Sorbian: gusty — compact; crowded together
- Spanish: compacto — compact; crowded together
- Spanish: macizo — compact; crowded together
- Swedish: tät — compact; crowded together
- Swedish: kompakt — compact; crowded together
- Vietnamese: dày — compact; crowded together
- Vietnamese: dày đặc — compact; crowded together
- Armenian: խիտ (xit) — thick; difficult to penetrate
- Armenian: թանձր (tʻanjr) — thick; difficult to penetrate
- Bulgarian: гъст (gǎst) — thick; difficult to penetrate
- Danish: tæt — thick; difficult to penetrate
- Finnish: tiheä — thick; difficult to penetrate
- Finnish: tiivis — thick; difficult to penetrate
- Galician: denso — thick; difficult to penetrate
- German: dicht — thick; difficult to penetrate
- Macedonian: густ (gust) — thick; difficult to penetrate
- Māori: pururua — thick; difficult to penetrate
- Middle English: sad — thick; difficult to penetrate
- Portuguese: denso — thick; difficult to penetrate
- Portuguese: espesso — thick; difficult to penetrate
- Russian: густо́й (gustój) — thick; difficult to penetrate
- Slovene: góst — thick; difficult to penetrate
- Lower Sorbian: gusty — thick; difficult to penetrate
- Spanish: denso — thick; difficult to penetrate
- Spanish: espeso — thick; difficult to penetrate
- Ottoman Turkish: كور (gür) — thick; difficult to penetrate
- Armenian: թանձր (tʻanjr) — opaque; allowing little light to pass through
- Bulgarian: непрозра́чен (neprozráčen) — opaque; allowing little light to pass through
- Finnish: tiheä — opaque; allowing little light to pass through
- Finnish: tiivis — opaque; allowing little light to pass through
- German: dicht — opaque; allowing little light to pass through
- Russian: непрозра́чный (neprozráčnyj) — opaque; allowing little light to pass through
- Spanish: denso — opaque; allowing little light to pass through
- Spanish: tupido — opaque; allowing little light to pass through
- Finnish: hämärä — obscure, or difficult to understand
- French: obscur — obscure, or difficult to understand
- German: dicht — obscure, or difficult to understand
- Italian: pastoso — obscure, or difficult to understand
- Spanish: obscuro — obscure, or difficult to understand
- Spanish: enigmático — obscure, or difficult to understand
- Danish: tæt — math: being a well-approximating subset
- Finnish: tiheä — math: being a well-approximating subset
- German: dicht — math: being a well-approximating subset
- Polish: gęsty — math: being a well-approximating subset
- Spanish: (subconjunto) denso — math: being a well-approximating subset
- Bulgarian: тъп (tǎp) — slow to comprehend; of low intelligence
- Bulgarian: глупав (glupav) — slow to comprehend; of low intelligence
- Finnish: pimeä — slow to comprehend; of low intelligence
- French: bouché — slow to comprehend; of low intelligence
- Hebrew: סָתוּם (satúm) — slow to comprehend; of low intelligence
- Polish: tępy — slow to comprehend; of low intelligence
- Russian: тупо́й (tupój) — slow to comprehend; of low intelligence
- Russian: глу́пый (glúpyj) — slow to comprehend; of low intelligence
- Spanish: cabeza dura — slow to comprehend; of low intelligence
- Spanish: menso — slow to comprehend; of low intelligence
- Spanish: obtuso — slow to comprehend; of low intelligence
- Spanish: tonto — slow to comprehend; of low intelligence
- Swedish: trög — slow to comprehend; of low intelligence
Real reading context