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Dense vs Pithy - What's the difference?

dense | pithy | Related terms |

As adjectives the difference between dense and pithy

is that dense is having relatively high density while pithy is concise and meaningful.

dense

English

Adjective

(er)
  • Having relatively high density.
  • Compact; crowded together.
  • Thick; difficult to penetrate.
  • *, chapter=13
    • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=And Vickers launched forth into a tirade very different from his platform utterances. He spoke with extreme contempt of the dense stupidity exhibited on all occasions by the working classes. He said that if you wanted to do anything for them, you must rule them, not pamper them.}}
  • Opaque; allowing little light to pass through.
  • Obscure, or difficult to understand.
  • (mathematics, topology) Being a subset of a topological space that approximates the space well. See Wikipedia article on (dense set)s for mathematical definition.
  • Of a person, slow to comprehend; of low intelligence.

    • Synonyms

    * (having relatively high density) solid * (crowded together) compact, crowded, packed * (difficult to penetrate) thick, solid * (allowing little light to pass through) cloudy, opaque * (difficult to understand) abstruse, difficult, hard, incomprehensible, obscure, tough * (slow to comprehend) dumb, slow, stupid, thick

    Antonyms

    * (having relatively high density) * (crowded together) diffuse, few and far between (of things as opposed to one thing), scattered, sparse, rarefied * (difficult to penetrate) thin * (allowing little light to pass through) clear, diaphanous, see-through, translucent, transparent * (difficult to understand) clear, comprehensible, easy, simple, straightforward, understandable * (in mathematics) meager * (slow to comprehend) bright, canny, intelligent, quick, quick-witted, smart

    Anagrams

    * * ----

    pithy

    English

    Adjective

    (er)
  • Concise and meaningful.
  • * 1825 , ,
    • Mr. Lamb, on the contrary, being "native to the manner here," though he too has borrowed from previous sources, instead of availing himself of the most popular and admired, has groped out his way, and made his most successful researches among the more obscure and intricate, though certainly not the least pithy or pleasant of our writers.
  • * 1873 April 25, (editor), ''The Chemical News ,
    • The following passage, which is exquisitely pithy and exquisitely modest, winds up the description:- "In this apparatus there is nothing new but its simplicity and thorough trustworthiness."
  • * 1876 , ,
    • IT was a pithy' saying that of Lorenzo de' Medici, and true as ' pithy , that we are enjoined to forgive our enemies, but nowhere are we told that we should forgive our friends.
  • Of, like, or abounding in pith.
  • * 1863 , ,
    • Must we know the torrid zone only through travelled bananas, plucked too soon and pithy ? or by bottled anacondas? or by the tarry-flavored slang of forecastle-bred paroquets?
  • * 1910 , , Suggestions and Reminders I: For the North, April,
    • Parsnip .—Dig the roots before they grow and become soft and pithy .
  • * 1911 , ,
    • To summarize the characters of a true mushroom - it grows only in pastures; it is of small size, dry, and with unchangeable flesh; the cap has a frill; the gills are free from the stem, the spores brown-black or deep purple-black in colour, and the stem solid or slightly pithy .

    Synonyms

    * (brief and to the point) terse, concise, laconic, succinct