dens

• IPA^(key): /dɛnz/

• Audio (UK):

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• Rhymes: -ɛnz

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

dens

1. plural of den

dens

1. third-person singular simple present indicative of den.

Borrowed from Latin dens (“a tooth”). Doublet of dent and tooth.

dens (plural dentes)

1. (anatomy) A toothlike process projecting from the anterior end of the centrum of the axis vertebra on which the atlas vertebra rotates.

   Synonym: odontoid process

• crowned dens syndrome
• dens invaginatus

• send, Send, ends, ENDS, Neds, neds, Ends, sned, NDEs, SEND

Borrowed from Latin dēnsus.

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic) [ˈdɛns]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [ˈdens]

dens (feminine densa, masculine plural densos, feminine plural denses)

1. dense, thick

• densament

• condensar
• densitat

• “dens”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
• “dens”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2025.
• “dens” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “dens” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

dens m pl

1. plural of dans (“tooth”)

• Cornish-English Dictionary from Maga's Online Dictionary
• Akademi Kernewek Gerlyver Kernewek (FSS) Cornish Dictionary (SWF) (in Cornish), 2018, published 2018, page 31

dens (nominative den, objective den)

1. its, possessive form of den

Inherited from Late Latin dē intus.

dens (ORB, broad)

1. in

• dans in DicoFranPro: Dictionnaire Français/Francoprovençal – on dicofranpro.llm.umontreal.ca
• dens in Lo trèsor Arpitan – on arpitan.eu

From Proto-Italic *dents, from Proto-Indo-European *h₃dónts. Cognates include Ancient Greek ὀδούς (odoús), Sanskrit दत् (dát), Lithuanian danti̇̀s, Old English tōþ (English tooth), Armenian ատամ (atam).

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈdẽːs]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈd̪ɛns]

dēns m (genitive dentis); third declension

1. (anatomy) a tooth
   • 8 CE – 12 CE, Ovid, Sorrows 1.77–78:

     nec procul ā stabulīs audet discēdere, sīquā
     excussa est avidī dentibus agna lupī.

     Nor [does a] lamb dare to withdraw far from the sheep-folds, if it was ever torn from the teeth of a hungry wolf.
     (The flexibility of Latin word order allows Ovid to heighten tension by enjoining the words for lamb and wolf. Translations vary; was the lamb ever torn “by the teeth” of a wolf, or did a shepherd once rescue the lamb “from the teeth” of a wolf?)

   • 1803, Joanne Nep. Alber, Interpretatio Sacrae Scripturae per Omnes Veteris et Novi Testamenti Libros‎^[1], 30:14, page 172:

     prō dentibus gladiōs habent

     They have swords for teeth.

2. (metonymic) a tooth, point, spike, prong, tine, fluke, or any tooth-like projection
3. (figuratively) tooth of envy, envy, ill will
   1. tooth of a destroying power
      • c. 99 BCE – 55 BCE, Lucretius, De rerum natura 1.851–853:

        nam quid in oppressū validō dūrābit eōrum, ut mortem effugiat, lēti sub dentibus ipsīs? ignis an ūmor an aura? quid hōrum? sanguen an ossa?

        For which of them will last—and escape death—under the strong pressure, under the very teeth of annihilation? The fire, or the moisture, or the air? Which of these? The blood, or the bones?

      • 8 CE, Ovid, Metamorphoses 15.233–235:

        Tempus edāx rērum, tūque, invidiōsa vetustās, omnia dēstruitis, vitiātaque dentibus aevī paulātim lentā cōnsūmitis omnia morte.

        O Time, devourer of all things, and you, jealous Old Age, you destroy everything; and, through the teeth of time, and a slow, tainted death, little by little, you consume everything.

      • c. 27 CE – 66 CE, Petronius, Satyricon 42:

        Excēpit Seleucus fābulae partem et “Egō̆” inquit “nōn cō̆tīdiē lavor; baliscus enim fullō est, aqua dentēs habet, et cor nostrum cō̆tīdiē liquēscit.[”]

        Seleucus took up part of the tale and "I", he said, "do not wash every day; for the bath is a fuller, the water has teeth, and our heart melts away daily."

Third-declension noun (i-stem).

Borrowings:

• → English: dens
• → Esperanto: dento
• → Interlingua: dente
• Translingual: ⇒ Dentella, ⇒ Compressidens

• “dens”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “dens”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• "dens", in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• dens in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “dens”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper’s Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “dens”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin

dens (nominative den, oblique den)

1. its, possessive form of den

From Vulgar Latin dē intus.

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dens

1. (Gascony) in, within, inside

• Patric Guilhemjoan, Diccionari elementari occitan-francés francés-occitan (gascon), 2005, Orthez, per noste, 2005, →ISBN, page 54.

• IPA^(key): (13^th CE) /ˈdɛns/
• IPA^(key): (15^th CE) /ˈdɛns/

dens

1. alternative form of dnes

• Jan Gebauer (1903–1916) “dens”, in Slovník staročeský (in Czech), Prague: Česká grafická společnost "unie", Česká akademie císaře Františka Josefa pro vědy, slovesnost a umění

Borrowed from French dense, Latin densus. Compare the inherited doublet des.

• IPA^(key): /dens/

dens m or n (feminine singular densă, masculine plural denși, feminine and neuter plural dense)

1. dense

• condensa
• densitate

• “dens”, in DEX online—Dicționare ale limbii române (Dictionaries of the Romanian language) (in Romanian), 2004–2025