1
: involving or causing some loss of data
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
Ron GoldbergThe 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
Virginia Heffernan2
: 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
Things like cropping, flipping or rotating, adding a filter, changing the brightness, color, or contrast, or using a lossy compression algorithm won’t remove a watermark from an image—or at least, not so much that SynthID can’t still detect it.
—Harry Guinness, Popular Science, 30 Aug. 2023
The fact that Xerox photocopiers use a lossy compression format instead of a lossless one isn’t, in itself, a problem.
—Ted Chiang, The New Yorker, 9 Feb. 2023
While the lossless Huffman algorithm is a part of the JPEG process, overall the standard is lossy.
—Quanta Magazine, 31 May 2023
Death is a lossy process, but something always remains.
—Paul Ford, WIRED, 15 June 2023
Even Netflix uses a lossy approach, downgrading video quality whenever the company detects that a user is watching on a low-resolution device.
—Quanta Magazine, 31 May 2023
Xerox photocopiers use a lossy compression format known as JBIG2, designed for use with black-and-white images.
—Ted Chiang, The New Yorker, 9 Feb. 2023
It was heavily backed by musician Neil Young, who hates the quality of lossy MP3 files that dominated music before streaming services like Spotify took hold.
—PCMAG, 20 Sep. 2022
Users will also have to option to switch from lossless to a lossy 24-bit 96kHz setting.
—Mark Sparrow, Forbes, 1 Sep. 2021
See More
Harry Guinness, Popular Science, 30 Aug. 2023
The fact that Xerox photocopiers use a lossy compression format instead of a lossless one isn’t, in itself, a problem.
—Ted Chiang, The New Yorker, 9 Feb. 2023
While the lossless Huffman algorithm is a part of the JPEG process, overall the standard is lossy.
—Quanta Magazine, 31 May 2023
Death is a lossy process, but something always remains.
—Paul Ford, WIRED, 15 June 2023
Even Netflix uses a lossy approach, downgrading video quality whenever the company detects that a user is watching on a low-resolution device.
—Quanta Magazine, 31 May 2023
Xerox photocopiers use a lossy compression format known as JBIG2, designed for use with black-and-white images.
—Ted Chiang, The New Yorker, 9 Feb. 2023
It was heavily backed by musician Neil Young, who hates the quality of lossy MP3 files that dominated music before streaming services like Spotify took hold.
—PCMAG, 20 Sep. 2022
Users will also have to option to switch from lossless to a lossy 24-bit 96kHz setting.
—Mark Sparrow, Forbes, 1 Sep. 2021
See More
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'lossy.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
First Known Use
1948, in the meaning defined at sense 2
Dictionary Entries Near lossy
Cite this Entry
“Lossy.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/lossy. Accessed 23 Sep. 2023.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share