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Lossy vs Lousy - What's the difference?

lossy | lousy |

As adjectives the difference between lossy and lousy

is that lossy is of a communication channel, subject to loss of signal strength while lousy is remarkably bad; of poor quality, dirty, or underhanded; mean, contemptible.

lossy

English

Adjective

(er)
  • (telecommunications) of a communication channel, subject to loss of signal strength
  • (power systems) of an electricity transmission line, subject to various forms of power loss
  • reducing the amount of information in data.
    • JPEG is a lossy image compression format.

    Antonyms

    * lossless

    lousy

    English

    Adjective

    (er)
  • Remarkably bad; of poor quality, dirty, or underhanded; mean, contemptible.
  • * No offense, but your cooking is lousy .
  • Infested with lice.
  • (colloquial) Filled or packed with something.
  • * The place was lousy with students .
  • * She's lousy with credit cards, goes shopping every day!

    • Usage notes

    Prior to World War II, it was an offensive insult, implying filthiness. Now considered a mild or rather dated term.

    Derived terms

    * lousy evil

    Related terms

    * cootie, crab louse, crabs, louse, pubic louse