dense

From Middle French dense, from Latin densus.

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

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛns

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

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

dense (plural denses)

1. A thicket.

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

From densa +‎ -e.

dense

1. densely

Borrowed from Latin densus.

• IPA^(key): /dɑ̃s/

• audio

  (file)

dense (plural denses)

1. dense

• condenser
• densité

• “dense” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

dense

1. Feminine plural of adjective denso.

From dēnsus (“close, crowded, dēnse”).

dēnsē (comparative dēnsius, superlative dēnsissimē)

1. closely, in rapid succession

• 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

dense

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