dense
having the component parts closely compacted together; crowded or compact: a dense forest;dense population.
stupid; slow-witted; dull.
intense; extreme: dense ignorance.
relatively opaque; transmitting little light, as a photographic negative, optical glass, or color.
difficult to understand or follow because of being closely packed with ideas or complexities of style: a dense philosophical essay.
Mathematics. of or relating to a subset of a topological space in which every neighborhood of every point in the space contains at least one point of the subset.
Origin of dense
1Other words for dense
| 1 | congested, crammed, teeming; impenetrable |
Other words from dense
- densely, adverb
- denseness, noun
- non·dense·ness, noun
- su·per·dense, adjective
- ul·tra·dense, adjective
Words Nearby dense
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use dense in a sentence
He had a special knife designed to cut the dense loaf, and a ceremony to precede cutting the cake.
One Cake to Rule Them All: How Stollen Stole Our Hearts | Molly Hannon | December 24, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTThe narrowest piece of land was at Panama, but it was covered in dense, mountainous jungle.
China’s Nicaragua Canal Could Spark a New Central America Revolution | Nina Lakhani | November 30, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTFor those in the dense forests, beaches, and towns of West Africa, it is a real threat.
These days they are occasional meteorological irruptions, white river mists, not dense and toxic industrial pea-soupers.
In the dense atmosphere of tobacco and conspiracy, one hot topic has been the death penalty.
Ukraine Rebels Love Russia, Hate Gays, Threaten Executions | Anna Nemtsova | October 25, 2014 | THE DAILY BEAST
No trail was so obtuse, no thicket so dense that members of that regiment would not track them to their lair.
The Courier of the Ozarks | Byron A. DunnThe road on which the Federals were marching was narrow and on each side lined with dense underbrush.
The Courier of the Ozarks | Byron A. DunnThe advance had to be carefully made, for the country was rough, wooded, and covered with a dense undergrowth of bushes.
The Courier of the Ozarks | Byron A. DunnNot having completed the loading of his gun, Tom hastily rode behind a dense bush, and concealed himself as well as he could.
Hunting the Lions | R.M. BallantyneTom jumped behind a bush, and as they passed tried to fire, but the foliage was so dense that he failed to get a good aim.
Hunting the Lions | R.M. Ballantyne
British Dictionary definitions for dense
/ (dɛns) /
thickly crowded or closely set: a dense crowd
thick; impenetrable: a dense fog
physics having a high density
stupid; dull; obtuse
(of a photographic negative) having many dark or exposed areas
(of an optical glass, colour, etc) transmitting little or no light
Origin of dense
1Derived forms of dense
- densely, adverb
- denseness, noun
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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