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Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

com·pres·sion

Audio Help [kuh

m-presh-uh

n] Pronunciation Key

–noun

1.	the act of compressing.

2.	the state of being compressed.

3.	the effect, result, or consequence of being compressed.

4.	(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.

5.	Also called data compression. reduction of the storage space required for data by changing its format.

Also, com·pres·sure

Audio Help [kuh

m-presh-er] Pronunciation Key (for defs. 1, 2).

[Origin: 1350–1400; ME (< AF) < L compressiōn- (s. of compressiō), equiv. to compress(us) ptp. of comprimere to press together (see com-, press¹) + -iōn- -ion

]

—Related forms

com·pres·sion·al, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
compression

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American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

com·pres·sion Audio Help (kəm-prěsh'ən) Pronunciation Key
n.

1. The act or process of compressing.
2. The state of being compressed.
3. The process by which the working substance in a heat engine, such as the vapor mixture in the cylinder of an internal-combustion engine, is compressed.
4. The engine cycle during which this process occurs.
1. The process by which the working substance in a heat engine, such as the vapor mixture in the cylinder of an internal-combustion engine, is compressed.
2. The engine cycle during which this process occurs.
Computer Science The process by which data is compressed into a form that minimizes the space required to store or transmit it.

com·pres'sion·al adj.

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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This

compression
noun
1.	an increase in the density of something [syn: compaction]
2.	the process or result of becoming smaller or pressed together; "the contraction of a gas on cooling"
3.	encoding information while reducing the bandwidth or bits required [ant: decompression]
4.	applying pressure [ant: decompressing]

The American Heritage Science Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

compression Audio Help (kəm-prěsh'ən) Pronunciation Key

A force that tends to shorten or squeeze something, decreasing its volume.
The degree to which a substance has decreased in size (in volume, length, or some other dimension) after being or while being subject to stress. See also strain.
The re-encoding of data (usually the binary data used by computers) into a form that uses fewer bits of information than the original data. Compression is often used to speed the transmission of data such as text or visual images, or to minimize the memory resources needed to store such data.

American Heritage New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition - Cite This Source - Share This
compression

See data compression.

[Chapter:] Technology

Free On-line Dictionary of Computing - Cite This Source - Share This

compression
1. (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".
Compression FAQ.
Web Content Compression FAQ.
Usenet newsgroups: comp.compression, comp.compression.research.
2. 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.
(2004-04-26)