lossy

American  

[law-see, los-ee] / ˈlɔ si, ˈlɒs i /

adjective

Electricity.

1. (of a material or transmission line) causing appreciable loss or dissipation of energy.

---

lossy British  

/ ˈlɒsɪ /

adjective

1. (of a dielectric material, transmission line, etc) designed to have a high attenuation; dissipating energy Compare lossless

   lossy line

---

Etymology

Origin of lossy

First recorded in 1945–50; loss + -y ¹

Example Sentences

However, solar power, batteries and in particular those in electric vehicles, and computers all depend on DC, making lossy AC-to-DC conversion necessary.

From Science Daily • Apr. 19, 2024

JPEGs take advantage of lossy compression, a process that removes aspects of a picture undetectable to the human eye, such as slight variations in color.

From Slate • Oct. 14, 2019

Mastered for iTunes was never about bit rate or high-resolution audio; Apple has continued to stick with the lossy AAC format as streaming competitors like Tidal have put an emphasis on lossless audio.

From The Verge • Aug. 7, 2019

Although metals are often described as lossy dielectric materials at optical wavelengths, they nevertheless support currents and can be used to form the optical equivalent of patch antennas.

From Nature • Dec. 11, 2012

In order to decrease file sizes significantly, we must employ lossy compression algorithms.

From Library of Congress Workshop on Etexts by Library of Congress