Words / B1

DENS/dens/

Dense means packed tightly: dense housing; a dense crowd. Fog can be dense. It also means hard to understand (dense prose). Density is a more technical noun (often C1 in science). Thick is everyday for fog. Do not call a person dense in formal writing — it is an insult meaning stupid.

Meaning

Packed tightly together; also thick (fog) or hard to understand.

Examples

• “Dense housing near the station raised overcrowding concerns.”
• “Dense fog closed the airport, which is the weather sense.”

Good to know

dense housing / fog / crowd. Prose: dense = hard to read. Insult (avoid in essays): a dense person. Technical noun: density.

Near in meaning

thick

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