densely
🇺🇸 /ˈdɛnsliː/
📖 Definitions
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adverb
In a dense manner; closely compacted or crowded together; with many things or people in a small area.; In a way that is difficult to understand; obscurely or opaquely.; In a thick, heavy, or impenetrable manner, often referring to physical substances or vegetation.
🔗 Details
Word forms
Comparative: more densely
Superlative: most densely
Collocations
densely populateddensely packeddensely woodeddensely writtendensely layereddensely forested
Derivatives
densedensitydensenessdensifydensification
Synonyms
thicklycompactlycloselytightlyconcentratedly
Antonyms
sparselythinlyloosely
Commonly confused
intensely
EN: 'Intensely' refers to degree or strength of feeling/quality; 'densely' refers to how closely packed or concentrated things are physically or structurally.
thickly
EN: 'Thickly' often describes a layer or coating applied with depth; 'densely' emphasizes the number of items per unit area or compactness.
Spelling tips
EN: Remember that 'densely' retains the 'e' from 'dense' before adding '-ly' (dense + ly = densely), unlike some adjectives that drop the 'e' (e.g., 'true' → 'truly').
💬 Examples
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The city is densely populated, with thousands of people living in each square kilometer.
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The philosopher wrote so densely that even his students struggled to follow his arguments.
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The forest was densely wooded, making it nearly impossible to see through the trees.