Word.ws English Dictionary

lossy

/ˈlɔsi//ˈlɒsi/

lossy adjective: of a communication channel, subject to loss of signal strength.

Adjective

lossy (comparative lossier, superlative lossiest)

  1. Of a communication channel, subject to loss of signal strength.
  2. Of an electricity transmission line, subject to various forms of power loss.
  3. Of an algorithm for converting or compressing data, reducing the amount of information in data.
    • JPEG is a lossy image compression format.

Antonyms of lossy

Forms of lossy

comparativelossier
superlativelossiest

Origin of lossy

From loss + -y.

Words formed from lossy

Words that rhyme with lossy

Questions about lossy

What does lossy mean?
Lossy means of a communication channel, subject to loss of signal strength.
What part of speech is lossy?
Lossy is an adjective.
How do you pronounce lossy?
Lossy is pronounced /ˈlɒsi/ (UK).

Words near lossy in the dictionary

  1. losslessness
  2. lossmaker
  3. lossmakers
  4. lossmaking
  5. lossproof
  6. lossy
  7. lost
  8. lost and found
  9. lost and founds
  10. lost articles
  11. lost caste

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: lossy (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-lossy.wav.

Cite this entry: “lossy.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/lossy. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.