entropy
noun
Simple meaning
A measure of the disorder present in a system.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
ehntruhpeeSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈɛntɹəpi
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
A measure of the disorder present in a system.
thermodynamicscountable
A measure of the amount of energy in a physical system that cannot be used to do work.
thermodynamicscountable
A thermodynamic quantity representing the amount of energy in a system that is no longer available for doing mechanical work
“Entropy increases as matter and energy in the universe degrade to an ultimate state of inert uniformity.”
uncountable
The tendency of a system that is left to itself to descend into chaos.
The dispersal of energy; how much energy is spread out in a process, or how widely spread out it becomes, at a specific temperature.
The capacity factor for thermal energy that is hidden with respect to temperature.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Academic
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A measure of the disorder present in a system.
Used this way, entropy is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a clinical use: it belongs to medical description, where it is factual rather than emotive.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Clinical and technical
- Usage feel
- Technical and specialized
Where it naturally appears
- Medicine/healthcare
- Science
- Technical/specialist writing
Usage note
In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use entropy
- “Entropy increases as matter and energy in the universe degrade to an ultimate state of inert uniformity.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Entropy calculated from the probability that a state could be reached by chance alone.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.