lossy

adjective

ˈlȯ-sē 

1

: involving or causing some loss of data

a lossy file format

Lossy compression is a way of getting even smaller squeezed files than lossless. This technology strips out data it has been programmed to regard as either unnecessary or redundant.

—Ron Goldberg

The loss was literal: MP3 is what's called a "lossy" data-compression form of audio encoding; some audio information is demonstrably lost in the process.

—Virginia Heffernan

2

: causing attenuation or dissipation of electrical energy

a lossy transmission line

a lossy dielectric

Examples of lossy in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

That result exceeds the roughly 199-mile (320-kilometer) threshold associated with direct transmission through a lossy fiber channel. — Aamir Khollam, Interesting Engineering, 14 Aug. 2026

However, even high-quality lossy music streaming at half that sampling rate is reproduced with more detail than most other gaming headsets. — Will Greenwald, PC Magazine, 6 Mar. 2026

Teams can try to reconstruct it with emotion tags or metadata, but the model is still reasoning over a partial, lossy representation—not the original cues. — Gautam Jha, Forbes.com, 26 Feb. 2026

It’s called lossy compression because some of the data are lost. — Alex Reisner, The Atlantic, 9 Jan. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1948, in the meaning defined at sense 2

Rhymes for lossy

• aussie
• basi
• bossy
• fossae
• glossy
• khasi
• masi
• mossy
• posse
• quasi
• saucy
• bagasse