density

UK/ˈdɛn.sɪ.ti/US/ˈdɛn.sə.ti/

nounC1Common in everyday speech and writing · #7,002 of 15,258mostly written

Other forms: densities

Density is how much matter is packed into a given space. High density, the density of water, population density.

Whether a thing floats comes down to it: anything less dense than water floats, which is why a steel ship floats and a steel bar does not. Population density is people per square kilometre and hides enormous variation within any average.

Definitions of density

1noundensityHow much matter is packed into a given space.C1
“Lead has a much higher density than aluminium, so a lead ball feels far heavier.”

density is a physical measure.

Where it comes from

Latin densitas comes from densus, thick or crowded.

Latin
densitas
Middle French
densité
English, today
density

Borrowed from Middle French densité or Latin densitas. Morphologically dense + ity.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Science & Space, Numbers & Measurement

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density in the wild

For a pure substance, the density is equal to its mass concentration.
Density
Thus a relative density less than one relative to water means that the substance floats in water.
Density
The relative density of solids and liquids is nearly always measured with respect to water at its densest; for gases, the reference is air at room temperature.
Relative density
If the reference material is water, then a substance with a relative density less than 1 will float in water.
Relative density
Probability density is the probability per unit length, in other words.
Probability density function

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

dense

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