[1] : The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48

entropy \en"tropy\, n. gr. ? a turning in; ? in + ? a turn,
   fr. ? to turn. thermodynamics
   a certain property of a body, expressed as a measurable
   quantity, such that when there is no communication of heat
   the quantity remains constant, but when heat enters or leaves
   the body the quantity increases or diminishes. if a small
   amount, h, of heat enters the body when its temperature is t
   in the thermodynamic scale the entropy of the body is
   increased by h / t. the entropy is regarded as measured from
   some standard temperature and pressure. sometimes called the
   thermodynamic function.
   1913 webster

         the entropy of the universe tends towards a maximum.
                                                  --clausius.
   1913 webster
see also:
thermodynamic function 

[2] : The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48

heat \heat\ h=et, n. oe. hete, haete, as. h=aetu,
   h=aeto, fr. h=at hot; akin to ohg. heizi heat, dan. hede,
   sw. hetta. see hot.
   1. a force in nature which is recognized in various effects,
      but especially in the phenomena of fusion and evaporation,
      and which, as manifested in fire, the sun's rays,
      mechanical action, chemical combination, etc., becomes
      directly known to us through the sense of feeling. in its
      nature heat is a mode of motion, being in general a form
      of molecular disturbance or vibration. it was formerly
      supposed to be a subtile, imponderable fluid, to which was
      given the name caloric.
      1913 webster

   note: as affecting the human body, heat produces different
         sensations, which are called by different names, as
         heat or sensible heat, warmth, cold, etc., according to
         its degree or amount relatively to the normal
         temperature of the body.
         1913 webster

   2. the sensation caused by the force or influence of heat
      when excessive, or above that which is normal to the human
      body; the bodily feeling experienced on exposure to fire,
      the sun's rays, etc.; the reverse of cold.
      1913 webster

   3. high temperature, as distinguished from low temperature,
      or cold; as, the heat of summer and the cold of winter;
      heat of the skin or body in fever, etc.
      1913 webster

            else how had the world . . .
            avoided pinching cold and scorching heat --milton.
      1913 webster

   4. indication of high temperature; appearance, condition, or
      color of a body, as indicating its temperature; redness;
      high color; flush; degree of temperature to which
      something is heated, as indicated by appearance,
      condition, or otherwise.
      1913 webster

            it has raised . . . heats in their faces. --addison.
      1913 webster

            the heats smiths take of their iron are a blood-red
            heat, a white-flame heat, and a sparkling or welding
            heat.                                 --moxon.
      1913 webster

   5. a single complete operation of heating, as at a forge or
      in a furnace; as, to make a horseshoe in a certain number
      of heats.
      1913 webster

   6. a violent action unintermitted; a single effort; a single
      course in a race that consists of two or more courses; as,
      he won two heats out of three.
      1913 webster

            many causes . . . for refreshment betwixt the heats.
                                                  --dryden.
      1913 webster

            he struck off at one heat the matchless tale of
            "tam o' shanter."                     --j. c.
                                                  shairp.
      1913 webster

   7. utmost violence; rage; vehemence; as, the heat of battle
      or party. "the heat of their division." --shak.
      1913 webster

   8. agitation of mind; inflammation or excitement;
      exasperation. "the heat and hurry of his rage." --south.
      1913 webster

   9. animation, as in discourse; ardor; fervency; as, in the
      heat of argument.
      1913 webster

            with all the strength and heat of eloquence.
                                                  --addison.
      1913 webster

   10. zool. sexual excitement in animals; readiness for
       sexual activity; estrus or rut.
       1913 webster +pjc

   11. fermentation.
       1913 webster

   12. strong psychological pressure, as in a police
       investigation; as, when they turned up the heat, he took
       it on the lam. slang
       pjc

   animal heat, blood heat, capacity for heat, etc. see
      under animal, blood, etc.

   atomic heat chem., the product obtained by multiplying
      the atomic weight of any element by its specific heat. the
      atomic heat of all solid elements is nearly a constant,
      the mean value being 6.4.

   dynamical theory of heat, that theory of heat which assumes
      it to be, not a peculiar kind of matter, but a peculiar
      motion of the ultimate particles of matter.

   heat engine, any apparatus by which a heated substance, as
      a heated fluid, is made to perform work by giving motion
      to mechanism, as a hot-air engine, or a steam engine.

   heat producers. physiol. see under food.

   heat rays, a term formerly applied to the rays near the red
      end of the spectrum, whether within or beyond the visible
      spectrum.

   heat weight mech., the product of any quantity of heat by
      the mechanical equivalent of heat divided by the absolute
      temperature; -- called also thermodynamic function, and
      entropy.

   mechanical equivalent of heat. see under equivalent.

   specific heat of a substance at any temperature, the
      number of units of heat required to raise the temperature
      of a unit mass of the substance at that temperature one
      degree.

   unit of heat, the quantity of heat required to raise, by
      one degree, the temperature of a unit mass of water,
      initially at a certain standard temperature. the
      temperature usually employed is that of 0deg centigrade,
      or 32deg fahrenheit.
      1913 webster
see also:
hot caloric cold animal heat blood heat capacity for heat 
animal blood atomic heat dynamical theory of heat heat engine 
heat producers food heat rays heat weight thermodynamic function 
entropy mechanical equivalent of heat equivalent specific heat of a substance at any temperature unit of heat 

[3] : WordNet (r) 2.0

entropy
     n 1: communication theory a numerical measure of the
          uncertainty of an outcome; "the signal contained
          thousands of bits of information" syn: information, selective
          information
     2: thermodynamics a thermodynamic quantity representing the
        amount of energy in a system that is no longer available
        for doing mechanical work; "entropy increases as matter
        and energy in the universe degrade to an ultimate state of
        inert uniformity" syn: randomness, s
see also:
information selective information randomness s 

[4] : Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0

107 moby thesaurus words for "entropy":
   edp, abeyance, aloofness, amorphia, amorphism, amorphousness,
   anarchy, apathy, bit, blurriness, catalepsy, catatonia, channel,
   chaos, communication explosion, communication theory, confusion,
   data retrieval, data storage, deadliness, deathliness, decoding,
   derangement, diffusion, disarrangement, disarray, disarticulation,
   discomfiture, discomposure, disconcertedness, discontinuity,
   discreteness, disharmony, dishevelment, disintegration,
   disjunction, dislocation, disorder, disorderliness,
   disorganization, dispersal, dispersion, disproportion, disruption,
   dissolution, disturbance, dormancy, electronic data processing,
   encoding, formlessness, fuzziness, haphazardness, haziness,
   incoherence, inconsistency, indecisiveness, indefiniteness,
   indeterminateness, indifference, indiscriminateness, indolence,
   inertia, inertness, information explosion, information theory,
   inharmonious harmony, irregularity, languor, latency, lotus-eating,
   messiness, mistiness, most admired disorder, noise, nonadhesion,
   noncohesion, nonsymmetry, nonuniformity, obscurity, orderlessness,
   passiveness, passivity, perturbation, promiscuity, promiscuousness,
   randomness, redundancy, scattering, separateness, shapelessness,
   signal, stagnancy, stagnation, stasis, suspense, torpor,
   turbulence, unadherence, unadhesiveness, unclearness, unsymmetry,
   untenacity, ununiformity, upset, vagueness, vegetation,
   vis inertiae

[5] : The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03)

entropy
     
         a measure of the disorder of a system.  systems tend
        to go from a state of order low entropy to a state of
        maximum disorder high entropy.
     
        the entropy of a system is related to the amount of
        information it contains.  a highly ordered system can be
        described using fewer bits of information than a disordered
        one.  for example, a string containing one million "0"s can be
        described using run-length encoding as "0", 1000000
        whereas a string of random symbols e.g. bits, or characters
        will be much harder, if not impossible, to compress in this
        way.
     
        shannon's formula gives the entropy hm of a message m in
        bits:
     
        	hm = -log2 pm
     
        where pm is the probability of message m.
     
        1998-11-23
     
     
see also:
information bit run-length encoding shannon 

Entropy >> E Words
Entropy, definition of term: Entropy
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