Packed closely together, with little empty space, like a thick forest or a heavy metal. Informally, it can also describe a person who is slow to understand.
From Latin *densus* meaning 'thick, crowded, compact'. The idea of thickness and crowding carried into many scientific uses, like dense materials or dense gases.
In physics, 'dense' is actually a compliment—dense materials can be incredibly strong and valuable, like gold or lead. The insult meaning comes from the idea that thoughts can’t 'move through' a dense mind easily, like light can’t pass through a thick fog.
As an insult meaning 'stupid', 'dense' has sometimes been applied in gendered ways, reinforcing stereotypes about women's or men's intelligence depending on context. It also appears in sexist jokes and tropes.
Avoid using 'dense' to insult individuals or groups; reserve it for technical senses (e.g., dense material, dense text) or describe specific difficulties instead of labeling people.
["thick (material)","compact","complex","hard to understand"]
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