compressible

American  

[kuhm-pres-uh-buhl] / kəmˈprɛs ə bəl /

adjective

1. able to be compressed.

2. involving or describing substances, especially fluids, that can be compressed.

3. Mathematics. (of a topological surface embedded in a three-dimensional manifold) having a circle that does not bound a surface disk but does bound a disk within the surrounding manifold.

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Other Word Forms

• compressibility noun
• incompressibility noun
• incompressible adjective
• non-compressible adjective
• uncompressible adjective

Example Sentences

Engineers describe these conditions as incompressible flow and compressible flow.

From Science Daily • Nov. 14, 2025

Made entirely with recycled fabric, this lightweight, compressible jacket is water- and windproof.

From Washington Post • Jul. 14, 2022

The gas therefore becomes less compressible at these high pressures, and although its volume continues to decrease with increasing pressure, this decrease is not proportional as predicted by Boyle’s law.

From Textbooks • Feb. 14, 2019

It was also the largest and least compressible pillow we tested.

From Slate • Jul. 31, 2018

The elastic, compressible, and dilatable fluid encompassing the terraqueous globe.

From The Sailor's Word-Book An Alphabetical Digest of Nautical Terms, including Some More Especially Military and Scientific, but Useful to Seamen; as well as Archaisms of Early Voyagers, etc. by Belcher, Edward, Sir