Agency Dictionary

Desaturation

nounPronunciation: /diːˌsætʃ.əˈreɪ.ʃən/

Design

What does “Desaturation” mean?

The progressive loss or removal of chromatic intensity, rendering a color closer to a neutral gray.

Etymology

A modern formation from de-, "reversal", and saturation. Saturation goes back to Latin saturare, "to fill, to sate", from satur, "full, sated", related to satis, "enough". Chemistry used saturation for a solution that can take up no more of a substance, and colour science borrowed it for the purity of a hue, the degree to which it is free of grey. Desaturation is the loss or removal of that purity; medicine uses the same word for a fall of oxygen in the blood.

Usage note

In image editing, full desaturation turns a picture into shades of grey. The s is pronounced as in saturate, not as z.

Synonyms

fading
greying
muting
dulling

Often confused with

brightness: Brightness is how light or dark a colour is; saturation is how pure it is. Desaturating a colour moves it toward grey without necessarily making it darker.

Word family

desaturate
desaturated
saturation
saturate
unsaturated

Rhymes with

nation
station
creation
foundation
vacation
relation
education
celebration

Usage examples

like dryness; decay and desaturation
Design.0 - Beyond the Surface of Forms

Concept

Technical ImageA technical image is a visual representation produced through scientific or mechanical apparatuses such as photography, cinema, and digital screens. It reorganizes human…

Source editions

Where this entry comes from in the Agency editorial.

Design.0 - Beyond the Surface of FormsMay 10, 2023Read the edition

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Also from these editions: terms

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recipientnoun: The person who receives something. In communication, the one to whom a message is addressed and who interprets it, as opposed to the sender who composes it.
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symbolismnoun: The use of symbols to represent ideas or qualities, and the set of meanings that a form, an image or an object carries beyond its literal sense.
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