Meanings
plural extropies
- countableuncountableNegentropy.
Extropy uptake, extropy output and entropy production. [...] Jin is the incoming extropy flow, while Jout is the outgoing one. Extropy inflow / outflow is the extropy of the incoming / outgoing material[…]
1999, Wolfgang Hofkirchner, The Quest for a Unified Theory of Information: Proceedings of the Second International Conference on the Foundations of Information Science, Psychology Press, →ISBN, page 272
Synonyms & antonyms
Origin
- Ancient Greekἐξ
- Englishextropy
First coined to serve as an antonym of entropy, substituting its en- element (representing the prepositional prefix ἐν (en), en, “in” in its Ancient Greek etymon ἐντροπία (entropía), entropia, “a turning towards”) with ex- (representing the Ancient Greek ἐξ (ex), ex, “out of”, “from”); because ἐξ (ex) takes the form ἐκ (ek) when prefixed to an element beginning with τ (t), the analogical spelling is ectropy (or, alternatively, ektropy), as if after the Ancient Greek *ἐκτροπία (ektropía, “a turning out of”).
More words from Ancient Greek
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
extropy. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/extropy
“extropy.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/extropy. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “extropy,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/extropy.
Source: extropy on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.