unsaturated
adjective
Simple meaning
Not saturated; capable of dissolving more of a substance at a given temperature.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
uhnsacheraytidSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ənˈsætʃɚeɪtɪd
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
adjective
chemistryof a solution
Not saturated; capable of dissolving more of a substance at a given temperature
chemistry
Used of a compound (especially of carbon) containing atoms sharing more than one valence bond
of color
Not chromatically pure; diluted
chemistryof a solution
Not saturated; capable of dissolving more of a solute at the same temperature.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient
- Frequency
- Uncommon
- Typical Use
- Primarily written
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Not saturated; capable of dissolving more of a substance at a given temperature
Used this way, unsaturated is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a scientific use: it names something precisely within a field of study, so it appears in research and teaching more than in conversation.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Clinical and technical
- Usage feel
- Technical and specialized
Where it naturally appears
- Science
- Academic writing
- Technical/specialist writing
Usage note
In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use unsaturated
- “An unsaturated salt solution.”adjective
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A fatty acid whose carbon chain can absorb additional hydrogen atoms.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
An unsaturated fatty acid whose carbon chain has one double or triple valence bond per molecule.
A class of fats having long carbon chains with many double bonds unsaturated with hydrogen atoms.
An unsaturated fatty acid whose carbon chain has more than one double or triple valence bond per molecule.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Antonyms
Sense: not saturated
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.