dense

American  

[dens] / dɛns /

adjective

denser, densest

1. having the component parts closely compacted together; crowded or compact.

   a dense forest;

   dense population.

   Synonyms:

   impenetrable, teeming

2. stupid; slow-witted; dull.

3. intense; extreme.

   dense ignorance.

4. relatively opaque; transmitting little light, as a photographic negative, optical glass, or color.

5. difficult to understand or follow because of being closely packed with ideas or complexities of style.

   a dense philosophical essay.

6. 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.

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dense British  

/ dɛns /

adjective

1. thickly crowded or closely set

   a dense crowd

2. thick; impenetrable

   a dense fog

3. physics having a high density

4. stupid; dull; obtuse

5. (of a photographic negative) having many dark or exposed areas

6. (of an optical glass, colour, etc) transmitting little or no light

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Other Word Forms

• denseness
  noun
• nondenseness
  noun
• superdense
  adjective
• ultradense
  adjective
• densely
  adverb

Etymology

Origin of dense

First recorded in 1590–1600; from Latin dēnsus “thick”; cognate with Greek dasýs

Explanation

When woods are dense, the trees grow close together. When fog is dense, you can't see through it. And if someone calls you dense, they think nothing can get into your thick skull. Dense comes from the Latin densus which means thick and cloudy. In general, the word means packed tight and gives the sense that something is difficult to get through. Text can be dense in two different ways: when the words are packed closely together on the page, and when the text is filled with big words and complicated thoughts. Either way, reading dense text is just no fun.

Example Sentences

In western South Dakota’s Black Hills, where dense ponderosa pines make mountains appear black from afar, the historic Lead area is experiencing a luxury real-estate transformation.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 25, 2026

If the best fleets can generate their own demand in dense markets, Uber’s aggregation value shrinks to secondary cities and overflow capacity.

From MarketWatch • Jun. 24, 2026

The material is less dense, more flexible, and better at retaining heat and moisture, creating favorable conditions for developing queens.

From Science Daily • Jun. 23, 2026

Because the system combines multiple positioning methods, it can continue estimating location in places where GPS alone struggles, such as dense urban environments, indoors, or underground transit systems.

From Slate • Jun. 20, 2026

He stalked into the dense woods, drawing his hood low over his one glowing eye.

From "The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest" by Aubrey Hartman

Related Words

• heavy
• impenetrable
• opaque
• solid