different between dense vs pithy

English

Etymology

From Middle French dense, from Latin densus.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, US) IPA^(key): /d?ns/
• Rhymes: -?ns

Adjective

dense (comparative denser, superlative densest)

1. Having relatively high density.

   Synonym: solid

2. Compact; crowded together.

   Synonyms: compact, crowded, packed; see also Thesaurus:compact

   Antonyms: diffuse; see also Thesaurus:diffuse

3. Thick; difficult to penetrate.

   Synonyms: thick, solid

   Antonym: thin
4. Opaque; allowing little light to pass through.

   Synonyms: cloudy, opaque; see also Thesaurus:opaque

   Antonyms: clear, diaphanous, see-through, translucent, transparent; see also Thesaurus:transparent, Thesaurus:translucent

5. Obscure, or difficult to understand.

   Synonyms: abstruse, difficult, hard, incomprehensible, obscure, tough; see also Thesaurus:incomprehensible

   Antonyms: clear, comprehensible, easy, simple, straightforward, understandable; see also Thesaurus:comprehensible

6. (mathematics, topology) Being a subset of a topological space that approximates the space well. See Wikipedia article on dense sets for mathematical definition.

   Antonym: meager

7. (of a person) Slow to comprehend; of low intelligence.

   Synonyms: dumb, slow, stupid, thick; see also Thesaurus:stupid

   Antonyms: bright, canny, intelligent, quick, quick-witted, smart; see also Thesaurus:intelligent

Antonyms

• (crowded together): diffuse, few and far between (of things as opposed to one thing), scattered, sparse, rarefied (scientific, to describe gases)

Translations

Noun

dense (plural denses)

1. A thicket.

Anagrams

• Denes, Edens, Sneed, denes, edens, needs, sende, sneed

Esperanto

Etymology

From densa +? -e.

Adverb

dense

1. densely

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin densus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /d??s/

Adjective

dense (plural denses)

1. dense

Related terms

• condenser
• densité

Further reading

• “dense” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Italian

Adjective

dense

1. feminine plural of denso

Latin

Etymology

From d?nsus (“dense, close, frequent”) +? -? (adverbial suffix).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /?den.se?/, [?d???s?e?]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /?den.se/, [?d??ns?]

Adverb

d?ns? (comparative d?nsius, superlative d?nsissim?)

1. closely, in rapid succession

Related terms

References

• dense in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• dense in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• dense in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré Latin-Français, Hachette

Spanish

Verb

dense

1. Compound of the second-person plural (ustedes) imperative form of dar, den and the pronoun se.

English

Etymology

pith +? -y

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?p??i/

Adjective

pithy (comparative pithier, superlative pithiest)

1. Concise and meaningful.
   • 1825, William Hazlitt, Elia, and Geoffrey Crayon, in The Spirit of the Age,

     Mr. Lamb, on the contrary, being "native to the manner here," though he too has borrowed from previous sources, instead of availing himself of the most popular and admired, has groped out his way, and made his most successful researches among the more obscure and intricate, though certainly not the least pithy or pleasant of our writers.

   • 1873 April 25, Obituary - Justus Liebig, in William Crookes (editor), The Chemical News,

     The following passage, which is exquisitely pithy and exquisitely modest, winds up the description:- "In this apparatus there is nothing new but its simplicity and thorough trustworthiness."

   • 1876, Rosina Bulwer Lytton, On the Gratitude we owe our Enemies, in Shells from the Sands of Time,

     IT was a pithy saying that of Lorenzo de' Medici, and true as pithy, that we are enjoined to forgive our enemies, but nowhere are we told that we should forgive our friends.
2. Of, like, or abounding in pith.
   • 1863, Theodore Winthrop, “The Heart of the Andes”, Part 2 – Introduction, published posthumously in Life in the Open Air and other papers,

     Must we know the torrid zone only through travelled bananas, plucked too soon and pithy? or by bottled anacondas? or by the tarry-flavored slang of forecastle-bred paroquets?

   • 1910, Liberty Hyde Bailey, Manual of Gardening, Suggestions and Reminders I: For the North, April,

     Parsnip.—Dig the roots before they grow and become soft and pithy.

   • 1911, Mushroom, article in Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition,

     To summarize the characters of a true mushroom - it grows only in pastures; it is of small size, dry, and with unchangeable flesh; the cap has a frill; the gills are free from the stem, the spores brown-black or deep purple-black in colour, and the stem solid or slightly pithy.

Synonyms

• (brief and to the point): terse, concise, laconic, succinct

Translations