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Synonyms

incompressible

American  
[in-kuhm-pres-uh-buhl] / ˌɪn kəmˈprɛs ə bəl /

adjective

  1. not capable of being compressed.


incompressible British  
/ ˌɪnkəmˈprɛsəbəl /

adjective

  1. incapable of being compressed or condensed

"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

Other Word Forms

  • incompressibility noun
  • incompressibly adverb

Etymology

Origin of incompressible

First recorded in 1720–30; in- 3 + compressible ( def. )

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.

"And what we found was that at Mach 6, the turbulence behavior is pretty close to the incompressible flow."

From Science Daily • Nov. 14, 2025

Engineers describe these conditions as incompressible flow and compressible flow.

From Science Daily • Nov. 14, 2025

Water and air are, to a good approximation, incompressible fluids, and the Navier-Stokes equations are used to design airplane wings and to model weather patterns and ocean currents.

From New York Times • Mar. 22, 2023

Another important result involved the Navier-Stokes equations, which describe the dynamics of incompressible fluids.

From New York Times • Mar. 22, 2023

The venous arrangements are also peculiar in that the veins are thin-walled and valveless, and open into the rigid, incompressible sinuses which run between the layers of the dura mater.

From Manual of Surgery Volume Second: Extremities—Head—Neck. Sixth Edition. by Miles, Alexander