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# dense

«dense» in Mova's school dictionary: **Thick, with things packed closely together: "a dense…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

adjective (dense, denser, densest)

### meaning for a pupil

1) Thick, with things packed closely together: "a dense forest", "dense fog". [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dense/#m1)

2) In science, having a lot of mass packed into a small space; dense things feel heavy for their size. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dense/#m2)

3) Informal and unkind: slow to understand. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dense/#m3)

### sense in the lessons

In science, density explains floating and sinking: objects denser than water sink, and objects less dense than water float. Iron is denser than wood. In geography, a dense population means many people living close together. In safety, dense fog makes it hard to see on roads. Phrases: dense fog, dense forest, dense crowd, denser than water.

### examples

- We got lost in the dense forest. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dense/#x1)
- Drive slowly in dense fog. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dense/#x2)
- A stone sinks because it is denser than water. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dense/#x3)
- Oil floats on water because it is less dense. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dense/#x4)
- The crowd was so dense we couldn't move. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dense/#x5)
- Cities are densely populated. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dense/#x6)
- Well, they walked and walked till they reached a dark, dense forest. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dense/#x7)

### note

Comparatives: denser, densest. The noun is "density". Trap: big does not mean dense; a big beach ball floats, but a small stone sinks. Calling someone "dense" is unkind.

### In the corpora

- [The African forest buffalo is a smaller, reddish cousin of the savanna buffalo, with swept-back horns that fit dense forest.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/160-the-congo-river/14/)
- [Oil and water do not mix; they form two layers with oil on top, because oil is less dense than water.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chemistry/7-oil-and-water/5/)
- [In a lava lamp, wax heated at the bottom expands, becomes less dense and rises, then cools and sinks.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chemistry/7-oil-and-water/12/)
- [Water is denser than oil, so it sinks under burning oil.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/40-home-safety-reasoning/16/)
- [Hot smoke is less dense than cool air, so it rises and fills a room from the ceiling down.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/40-home-safety-reasoning/21/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «dense» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dense/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.