lossy

[ law-see, los-ee ]

adjective

, Electricity.

1. (of a material or transmission line) causing appreciable loss or dissipation of energy.

lossy

/ ˈlɒsɪ /

adjective

1. (of a dielectric material, transmission line, etc) designed to have a high attenuation; dissipating energy Compare lossless

   lossy line

Word History and Origins

Origin of lossy¹

First recorded in 1945–50; loss + -y ¹

Word History and Origins

Origin of lossy¹

C20: from loss

Example Sentences

However, solar power, batteries and in particular those in electric vehicles, and computers all depend on DC, making lossy AC-to-DC conversion necessary.

From Science Daily

Physicists and engineers have struggled for decades with how small optical resonators can be made without making them very lossy, which is equivalent to asking how small you can make a semiconductor device.

From Science Daily

Throughout the latest post, Young — a longtime advocate of hi-fi sound — heavily criticizes Spotify for its lossy audio quality.

From The Verge

Mastered for iTunes was never about bit rate or high-resolution audio; Apple has continued to stick with the lossy AAC format as streaming competitors like Tidal have put an emphasis on lossless audio.

From The Verge

It was produced on April 17th on “probably a typical office network copier/printer,” and it uses lossy compression “more appropriate to photographs than to text.”

From The Verge