condense
Americanverb (used with object)
-
to make more dense or compact; reduce the volume or extent of; concentrate.
- Synonyms:
- consolidate, compress
- Antonyms:
- expand
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to reduce to a shorter form; abridge.
Condense your answer into a few words.
- Synonyms:
- abbreviate, abstract, epitomize, digest
-
to reduce to another and denser form, as a gas or vapor to a liquid or solid state.
verb (used without object)
-
to become denser or more compact or concentrated.
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to reduce a book, speech, statement, or the like, to a shorter form.
-
to become liquid or solid, as a gas or vapor.
The steam condensed into droplets.
verb
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(tr) to increase the density of; compress
-
to reduce or be reduced in volume or size; make or become more compact
-
to change or cause to change from a gaseous to a liquid or solid state
-
chem to undergo or cause to undergo condensation
Related Words
See contract.
Other Word Forms
- condensability noun
- condensable adjective
- overcondense verb
- precondense verb
- recondense verb
- uncondensing adjective
Etymology
Origin of condense
First recorded in 1475–85; from Middle French condenser, from Latin condēnsāre, from con- con- + dēnsāre “to thicken,” verb derivative of dēnsus dense
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Thomas’s style of speaking, in fact, resembles poetry, with rapid juxtapositions of images and a tendency to condense memories from different time periods.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 31, 2026
"It can't create rain where there is no moisture in the air, but it just 'forces' some of the water to condense in one location rather than another," he told AFP.
From Barron's • Nov. 2, 2025
This phenomenon involves cooler, heavier blobs of plasma that condense high above the Sun's surface and then plunge back down.
From Science Daily • Oct. 15, 2025
These dusty specks condense from the hottest parts of the cloud, in a similar way to the raindrops that form inside clouds here on Earth.
From Space Scoop • Jul. 16, 2025
You're thinking, "Mars's atmosphere isn't liquid. Why does the Hab's air condense?"
From "The Martian" by Andy Weir
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
