Meaning & use
densely
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Meanings
adverbnot comparable
In a way that packs many people or things closely into a small area.
Grammar: Often comes before a past participle or adjective: densely populated, densely packed.
Patterns
- densely populated
- densely packed
- densely wooded
The island is one of the most densely populated places on Earth.
Books were densely packed on every shelf of the tiny shop.
The hills are densely wooded, so hikers rarely see the sky.
adverbnot comparable
In a way that contains a great deal of information or detail in a small amount of space.
Grammar: Used with written or printed material: densely written, densely argued.
Patterns
- densely written
- densely argued
The textbook was densely written and took me hours to finish one chapter.
Her essay was densely argued, with a new point in nearly every sentence.
The map was so densely labeled that it was hard to read.
Word forms
| comparative | more densely |
|---|---|
| superlative | most densely |
Common combinations
- densely populated
- The river delta is densely populated.
- densely packed
- The crowd was densely packed near the stage.
- densely forested
- The valley is densely forested and hard to cross.
- densely built
- The city center is densely built, with few gardens.
- densely written
- The report was densely written and full of technical terms.
Synonyms and how they differ
- thickly
- Thickly often describes layers or growth, such as thickly covered, while densely focuses on how closely items are crowded together.
- tightly
- Tightly describes how firmly things are held or fitted, whereas densely describes how many are in a given space.
- closely
- Closely is a more general word for nearness, while densely stresses a high concentration.
- heavily
- Heavily is a broad intensifier, as in heavily wooded, but densely emphasizes the crowding of individual items.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: densely or dense?
densely vs dense
Dense is the adjective and densely is the adverb: a dense forest, but a densely forested area.
Practice
Choose the correct form: Hong Kong is one of the world's most ___ populated cities.
Choose one answer.
An adverb is needed to modify the participle populated, so densely is correct. Dense would modify a noun directly, as in a dense population.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “densely”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.