Standard Lemma guide

lossy

adj · 4 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

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.

  • UK: /ˈlɒsi/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • US: /ˈlɔsi/
  • US: /ˈlɑsi/
  • rhymes with -ɒsi
  • rhymes with -ɔːsi

1

adj

Meaning 1

Of a communication channel, subject to loss of signal strength.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Topics: communications, electrical-engineering, engineering, natural-sciences, physical-sciences, telecommunications

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

adj

Meaning 2

Of an electricity transmission line, subject to various forms of power loss.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Topics: business, electrical-engineering, electricity, electromagnetism, energy, engineering, natural-sciences, physical-sciences, physics

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

adj

Meaning 3

Of an algorithm for converting or compressing data, reducing the amount of information in data.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Topics: computing, engineering, mathematics, natural-sciences, physical-sciences, sciences

Examples

  • JPEG is a lossy image compression format.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

4

adjective

Meaning 4

characterized by or causing dissipation of energy

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: lossless

History

Etymology

From loss + -y.

Across languages

Translations

18 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Chinese Mandarin: 有信號損耗的 /有信号损耗的 (yǒu xìnhào sǔnhào de) — subject to loss of signal strength
  • Finnish: häviöllinen — subject to loss of signal strength
  • Hungarian: veszteséges — subject to loss of signal strength
  • Hungarian: veszteséggel járó — subject to loss of signal strength
  • Polish: stratny — subject to loss of signal strength
  • Chinese Mandarin: 有功率損耗的 /有功率损耗的 (yǒu gōnglǜ sǔnhào de) — subject to various forms of power loss
  • Finnish: häviöllinen — subject to various forms of power loss
  • Hungarian: veszteséges — subject to various forms of power loss
  • Hungarian: veszteséggel járó — subject to various forms of power loss
  • Polish: stratny — subject to various forms of power loss
  • Chinese Mandarin: 有損壓縮的 /有损压缩的 (yǒu sǔn yāsuō de) — reducing the amount of information in data
  • Finnish: häviöllinen — reducing the amount of information in data
  • Greek: απολεστικός (apolestikós) — reducing the amount of information in data
  • Greek: απωλειακός (apoleiakós) — reducing the amount of information in data
  • Hungarian: veszteséges — reducing the amount of information in data
  • Japanese: 非可逆 (hikagyaku) — reducing the amount of information in data
  • Polish: stratny — reducing the amount of information in data
  • Swedish: destruktiv — reducing the amount of information in data