ALL meanings of compression
com·pres·sion
C c - noun compression the act of compressing or the condition of being compressed 3
- noun compression an increase in pressure of the charge in an engine or compressor obtained by reducing its volume 3
- noun compression a compressing or being compressed 3
- noun compression the compressing of the air-fuel mixture in an internal-combustion engine just before ignition 3
- noun compression Compression is the increase of pressure in an engine cylinder as the piston travels toward top dead center. 3
- noun compression Compression of a solid material involves applying forces that reduce the distance between the points of load. 3
- noun compression Compression is the action of applying a force to a solid, liquid, or gas so that it takes up less space. 3
- noun compression Compression is the act or process of applying something with pressure. 3
- noun Technical meaning of compression 1. (application) (Or "compaction") The coding of data to save storage space or transmission time. Although data is already coded in digital form for computer processing, it can often be coded more efficiently (using fewer bits). For example, run-length encoding replaces strings of repeated characters (or other units of data) with a single character and a count. There are many compression algorithms and utilities. Compressed data must be decompressed before it can be used. The standard Unix compression utilty is called compress though GNU's superior gzip has largely replaced it. Other compression utilties include pack, zip and PKZIP. When compressing several similar files, it is usually better to join the files together into an archive of some kind (using tar for example) and then compress them, rather than to join together individually compressed files. This is because some common compression algorithms build up tables based on the data from their current input which they have already compressed. They then use this table to compress subsequent data more efficiently. See also TIFF, JPEG, MPEG, Lempel-Ziv Welch, "lossy", "lossless". 2. (multimedia) Reducing the dynamic range of an audio signal, making quiet sounds louder and loud sounds quieter. Thus, when discussing digital audio, the preferred term for reducing the total amount of data is "compaction". Some advocate this term in all contexts. 1
- noun compression compacting, squeezing 1
- noun compression computing: file reduction 1
- noun compression The action of compressing or being compressed. 1
- noun compression the act of compressing. 1
- noun compression the state of being compressed. 1
- noun compression the effect, result, or consequence of being compressed. 1
- noun compression (in internal-combustion engines) the reduction in volume and increase of pressure of the air or combustible mixture in the cylinder prior to ignition, produced by the motion of the piston toward the cylinder head after intake. 1
- noun compression Also called data compression. Computers. reduction of the storage space required for data by changing its format. 1
- noun compression An increase in density; the act of compressing, or the state of being compressed; compaction. 0
- noun compression The cycle of an internal combustion engine during which the fuel and air mixture is compressed. 0
- noun compression (computing) The process by which data is compressed. 0
- noun compression (music) The electronic process by which any sound's gain is automatically controlled. 0
- noun compression (astronomy) The deviation of a heavenly body from a spherical form. 0