Saturations

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The condition of being thoroughly soaked or filled with a fluid
2. The extent to which a certain level of concentration or completeness is achieved in a situation
3. The state in which a substance or material is fully soaked or infused with a liquid ; the measurement of how entirely a process or mixture has reached its maximum concentration or capacity

Etymology: "Saturation" comes from Late Latin "saturatio," the act of filling something to the brim, which itself grows out of the Latin verb "saturare," to satisfy or fill full. The root idea is simple abundance: a container or appetite that can take no more. Its plural, "saturations," is the countable form of that noun, used when speakers have several distinct cases or degrees of fullness in mind rather than the general idea. The word first passed into English as a term of physical fullness, and the sense of a solution holding as much dissolved material as it can took shape from that same notion of a limit being reached. The meaning in your sense, the degree to which a situation has been thoroughly covered or filled, is a figurative extension of that chemical and physical picture, where completeness is measured by how far something has been filled up.

Synonyms: soakings, saturation points

Antonyms: dryness