Words / C1

DENS-uh-tee/ˈdensəti/

Density is how tightly packed something is: population density, traffic density, the density of a material. Dense is the adjective (thick, or informal “stupid”). Concentration can mean how much is dissolved. Do not use density for a person’s intelligence in academic writing — that slang sense of dense is rude and imprecise.

Meaning

How tightly packed something is, of people, traffic, or a material.

Examples

• “The city has a high population density.”
• “High housing density without parks is a planning failure, not a virtue by itself.”
• “The density of errors in the last ten pages suggested a tired typist, not a new theory.”

Good to know

How tightly packed. Adjective: dense. Science: mass/volume. Informal dense = stupid (avoid in essays).

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