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ENTROPY
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
(thermodynamics) a thermodynamic quantity representing the amount of energy in a system that is no longer available for doing mechanical work
Example:
entropy increases as matter and energy in the universe degrade to an ultimate state of inert uniformity
Synonyms:
entropy; randomness; S
Classified under:
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
Hypernyms ("entropy" is a kind of...):
physical property (any property used to characterize matter and energy and their interactions)
Domain category:
thermodynamics (the branch of physics concerned with the conversion of different forms of energy)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "entropy"):
conformational entropy (entropy calculated from the probability that a state could be reached by chance alone)
Sense 2
Meaning:
(communication theory) a numerical measure of the uncertainty of an outcome
Example:
the signal contained thousands of bits of information
Synonyms:
entropy; information; selective information
Classified under:
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
Hypernyms ("entropy" is a kind of...):
information measure (a system of measurement of information based on the probabilities of the events that convey information)
Domain category:
communication theory; communications (the discipline that studies the principles of transmiting information and the methods by which it is delivered (as print or radio or television etc.))
