Definitions
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective telecommunications of a communication channel, subject to loss of signal strength
- adjective of an electricity transmission line, subject to various forms of power loss
- adjective   reducing the amount ofinformation in data.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective characterized by or causing dissipation of energy
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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								Most codecs also serve as compressors, so they are "lossy" - they reduce the quality of the information in order to make the file smaller. 
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								Hence, compressed formats are also known as lossy formats, since details are lost. videosaver.net videosaver 2010 
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								JPEG is called a lossy file format, however, because it compresses photos to save disk space. PCWorld 2010 
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								Masking is a compression scheme based on removing the data the represents a low volume sound in an audio signal that would likely be missed by your ears due to other high volume sounds and therefore masking your ability to hear them; the masked data is thrown out and therefore defined as lossy, period. HDTV Magazine 2010 
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								Hence, compressed formats are also known as lossy formats, since details are lost. videosaver.net videosaver 2010 
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								The ubiquitous MP3 format is what's known as a lossy format, tossing away what the algorithm considered to be unnecessary portions of the audio track in order to compress the file down to a more compact size. Gearlog 2009 
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								This is known as lossy compression, and can result in a loss of quality if a high level of compression is applied. Boagworld recommends 2009 
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								It could be defensible if one regards the genome when going through duplications as a "lossy" decompression. 
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								It could be defensible if one regards the genome when going through duplications as a "lossy" decompression. 
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								The higher storage capability, combined with much more efficient codecs standard-def's MPEG-2 is a notoriously 'lossy' and inefficient codec will allow for less noticeable compression, leading to a more pleasing viewing experience. Archive 2008-05-04 2008 
skipvia commented on the word lossy
The opposite of "lossless," at least in terms of compression algorithms for computer images.
October 1, 2007