Word of the day · 26 April 2026
entropy
/ˈɛntrəpi/
noun
In physics, a measure of energy dispersal or disorder in a system; loosely, a drift toward randomness or rundown.
In a sentence
- Left alone, the sorted beads showed rising entropy as they mixed.
- The lecture linked entropy to why hot coffee cools in a room.
- Writers borrow entropy for households that slide into clutter.
In an image
Origin
Coined in the 19th century by Rudolf Clausius from Greek en- (in) and tropē (turn, transformation) for a thermodynamic quantity.
History
Thermodynamics ties entropy to heat and the direction of spontaneous change. Information theory later reused related math for uncertainty in messages. Popular writing treats entropy as cosmic messiness. Students search it because classrooms and essays both name-drop it without a plain picture.
Nearby words
disorder · randomness · thermodynamics
The tendency of tidy systems to spread out and wind down.