DENSE

dense, dim, dull, dumb, obtuse, slow

(adjective) slow to learn or understand; lacking intellectual acuity; “so dense he never understands anything I say to him”; “never met anyone quite so dim”; “although dull at classical learning, at mathematics he was uncommonly quick”- Thackeray; “dumb officials make some really dumb decisions”; “he was either normally stupid or being deliberately obtuse”; “worked with the slow students”

dense

(adjective) having high relative density or specific gravity; “dense as lead”

dense, thick

(adjective) hard to pass through because of dense growth; “dense vegetation”; “thick woods”

dense, heavy, impenetrable

(adjective) permitting little if any light to pass through because of denseness of matter; “dense smoke”; “heavy fog”; “impenetrable gloom”

Source: WordNet® 3.1

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Etymology

Adjective

dense (comparative denser, superlative densest)

Having relatively high density.

Synonym: solid

Compact; crowded together.

Synonyms: compact, crowded, packed, Thesaurus:compact

Antonyms: diffuse, Thesaurus:diffuse

Thick; difficult to penetrate.

Synonyms: thick, solid

Antonym: thin

Opaque; allowing little light to pass through.

Synonyms: cloudy, opaque, Thesaurus:opaque

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

Obscure, or difficult to understand.

Synonyms: abstruse, difficult, hard, incomprehensible, obscure, tough, Thesaurus:incomprehensible

Antonyms: clear, comprehensible, easy, simple, straightforward, understandable, Thesaurus:comprehensible

(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

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

Synonyms: dumb, slow, stupid, thick, Thesaurus:stupid

Antonyms: bright, canny, intelligent, quick, quick-witted, smart, Thesaurus:intelligent

Antonyms

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

Noun

dense (plural denses)

A thicket.

Anagrams

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

Source: Wiktionary

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Dense, a. Etym: [L. densus; akin to Gr. dense.]

1. Having the constituent parts massed or crowded together; close; compact; thick; containing much matter in a small space; heavy; opaque; as, a dense crowd; a dense forest; a dense fog. All sorts of bodies, firm and fluid, dense and rare. Ray. To replace the cloudy barrier dense. Cowper.

2. Stupid; gross; crass; as, dense ignorance.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition

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