entropy

Meaning

1. (countable, uncountable) A measure of the disorder present in a system.
2. (countable, uncountable) A measure of the disorder present in a system.
3. (countable) A measure of the amount of energy in a physical system that cannot be used to do work.
4. (countable, uncountable) The capacity factor for thermal energy that is hidden with respect to temperature.
5. (countable, uncountable) The dispersal of energy; how much energy is spread out in a process, or how widely spread out it becomes, at a specific temperature.
6. (countable) A measure of the amount of information and noise present in a signal.
7. (uncountable) The tendency of a system that is left to itself to descend into chaos.

Synonyms

information

randomness

S

S

selective information

mean amount of information

average information

average information content

Translations

Entropie

entropie

entropía

entropie

information

renseignement

hasard

aleatoriedad

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈɛntɹəpi/

Etymology

Cognate with Ancient Greek: ἔργον

In summary

First attested in 1867, as the translation of German Entropie, coined in 1865 by Rudolph Clausius in analogy to Energie (“energy”), replacing the root of Ancient Greek ἔργον (érgon, “work”) by Ancient Greek τροπή (tropḗ, “transformation”)).