Achromaticity

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The quality of lacking color or hues; the characteristic of appearing in shades of gray, black, and white without chromatic variation; the property of being colorless or devoid of pigmentation
2. A state or condition marked by absence of color, showing only neutral tones such as black, white, and gray; the attribute of lacking color diversity or saturation; the phenomenon of being without chromatic content
3. The characteristic of being visually colorless or neutral, consisting solely of grayscale values; the condition of exhibiting no hues or vivid colors; a property describing that which does not display chromatic distinctions

Etymology: Achromaticity is a compound built from two parts: "achromatic," which means without colour, and the suffix "-ity," which turns an adjective into a noun naming a quality or state. The adjective itself is formed from Greek roots, "a-" meaning "not" and "chroma" meaning "colour," so the whole word carries the sense of "not-colour" twice over: once in the prefix and once in the suffix that makes it a thing one can have. The suffix has a longer journey than the rest of the word. "-ity" descends from Latin "-itas," which was attached to adjectives to form abstract nouns, and it reached English by way of Old French and Middle English "-ite" before settling into the form used today. Because it is so productive, English speakers have been able to attach it to newly coined adjectives like "achromatic" without any special effort.

Synonyms: colorlessness, neutrality, grayscale

Antonyms: chromaticity, colorfulness, saturation