entropy
noun
en·tro·py
| \ ˈen-trə-pē
\
\
plural entropies
Definition of entropy
1
thermodynamics
: a measure of the unavailable energy in a closed thermodynamic system that is also usually considered to be a measure of the system's disorder, that is a property of the system's state, and that varies directly with any reversible change in heat in the system and inversely with the temperature of the system
broadly
: the degree of disorder or uncertainty in a system
2a
: the degradation of the matter and energy in the universe to an ultimate state of inert uniformity
Entropy is the general trend of the universe toward death and disorder.— James R. Newman
b
: a process of degradation or running down or a trend to disorder
The deterioration of copy editing and proof-reading, incidentally, is a token of the cultural entropy that has overtaken us in the postwar years.— John Simon
3
: chaos, disorganization, randomness
4
statistical mechanics
: a factor or quantity that is a function of the physical state of a mechanical system and is equal to the logarithm of the probability for the occurrence of the particular molecular arrangement in that state
5
communication theory
: a measure of the efficiency of a system (such as a code or a language) in transmitting information, being equal to the logarithm of the number of different messages that can be sent by selection from the same set of symbols and thus indicating the degree of initial uncertainty that can be resolved by any one message
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Other Words from entropy
entropic
\ en-ˈtrō-pik
, -ˈträ-pik \
adjective
, -ˈträ-pik \
adjective
entropically
\ en-ˈtrō-pi-k(ə-)lē
, -ˈträ- \
adverb
, -ˈträ- \
adverb
Examples of entropy in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Even the American government is experimenting with entropy. — Amanda Shendruk, Quartz, "Cloudflare uses lava lamps to generate a fundamental resource: Randomness," 20 Aug. 2019 Alice thinks that Bob does not support 16 bytes of entropy and accepts 1 byte. — Dan Goodin, Ars Technica, "New Attack exploiting serious Bluetooth weakness can intercept sensitive data," 17 Aug. 2019 The classical computer uses statistical tests to ensure that the output strings have a lot of entropy. — Quanta Magazine, "How to Turn a Quantum Computer Into the Ultimate Randomness Generator," 19 June 2019 Then calculate the entropy using the formula (14 + 4u – 2b – t)/42. — Quanta Magazine, "Solution: ‘Time Through an LCD Display’," 30 Sep. 2016 Seekers of immortality are saddled with the body, the physical brain, the fact of entropy. — Josh Wilbur, WIRED, "You Could Live Forever With This Sci-Fi Time Hack," 4 June 2019 The speed with which the hotel in Lab—which began as a prison, the ultimate symbol of modern efforts at social control—deteriorates in the absence of human oversight suggests the power of entropy to tear apart any human endeavor. — Christopher Beha, Harper's magazine, "Mallo My!," 10 Mar. 2019 There's a certain satisfaction fighting against entropy in such a simple, straightforward way—taking a disordered world and converting it into a clean, simple nothingness. — Kyle Orland, Ars Technica, "Donut County lets you become one with nothingness," 27 Aug. 2018 If the atoms were not super-cooled, rearranging them would have little effect on the system's overall entropy. — Jennifer Ouellette, Ars Technica, "Penn State scientists build quantum version of Maxwell’s demon," 12 Sep. 2018These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'entropy.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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More Definitions for entropy
entropy
noun
en·tro·py
| \ ˈen-trə-pē
\
\
plural entropies
Medical Definition of entropy
: a measure of the unavailable energy in a closed thermodynamic system that is also usually considered to be a measure of the system's disorder and that is a property of the system's state and is related to it in such a manner that a reversible change in heat in the system produces a change in the measure which varies directly with the heat change and inversely with the absolute temperature at which the change takes place
broadly
: the degree of disorder or uncertainty in a system
Other Words from entropy
entropic
\ en-ˈtrōp-ik
, -ˈträp-
\
adjective
, -ˈträp-
\
adjective
entropically
\ -i-k(ə-)lē
\
adverb
\
adverb