1. A method of compressing a data block comprising: storing respective fixed-size symbols for each of a plurality of words in the data block in a symbol portion of a compressed data block, each of the symbols providing information about a corresponding one of the words in the data block; storing in a data portion of the compressed data block a variable number of one or more data segments, each of the data segments corresponding to a unique one of the symbols in the compressed data block and a unique one of the words in the data block; and storing in the data portion of the compressed data block a variable number of one or more dictionary entries, at least one of the dictionary entries corresponding to multiple ones of the symbols; and wherein at least one of the words in the data block is represented in compressed form solely by one of the symbols and at least another of the words in the data block is represented in compressed form by one of the data segments in conjunction with another one of the symbols and a third one of the words of the data block is equal to a dictionary entry.