saturate
Americanverb (used with object)
-
saturates,
present (3rd person singular)
-
saturated,
past participle, past
-
saturating
present participle
-
to cause (a substance) to unite with the greatest possible amount of another substance, through solution, chemical combination, or the like.
-
to charge to the utmost, as with magnetism.
-
to soak, impregnate, or imbue thoroughly or completely.
to saturate a sponge with water; a town saturated with charm.
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to destroy (a target) completely with bombs and missiles.
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to send so many planes over (a target area) that the defensive electronic tracking equipment becomes ineffective.
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to furnish (a market) with goods to its full purchasing capacity.
verb (used without object)
-
saturates,
present (3rd person singular)
-
saturated,
past participle, past
-
saturating
present participle
adjective
noun
verb
-
to fill, soak, or imbue totally
-
to make (a chemical compound, vapour, solution, magnetic material, etc) saturated or (of a compound, vapour, etc) to become saturated
-
(tr) military to bomb or shell heavily
adjective
Synonym Usage
See wet.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
saturatesimple
-
saturatessimple
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have saturatedperfect
-
has saturatedperfect
-
am saturatingprogressive
-
are saturatingprogressive
-
is saturatingprogressive
-
have been saturatingperfect progressive
-
has been saturatingperfect progressive
Past
-
saturatedsimple
-
had saturatedperfect
-
was saturatingprogressive
-
were saturatingprogressive
-
had been saturatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of saturate
First recorded in 1530–40; from Latin saturātus (past participle of saturāre “to fill”), equivalent to satur- “full, well-fed” ( see sad) + -ātus -ate 1
Explanation
The verb saturate means to cause something to be fully soaked to the point where it can't take on anything else. A heavy rainstorm can saturate the ground, leaving puddles on the lawn because no more water can be absorbed. The word saturate comes from the Latin word saturatus, meaning "to fill full, sate, drench." Saturate is often used to describe the aftermath of a big rainstorm, but other things can be saturated as well. If you're a workaholic, you might saturate all your free time with work, leaving no time to spend with your family. In chemistry, saturate describes causing one substance, like a solution, to take on the greatest amount of another substance.
Vocabulary lists containing saturate
Tangerine
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100 SAT words Beginning with "S"
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The Martian
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Revenue grew at greater than 24% a year from 2002 to 2022 when the company began to saturate the market for its customer relationship management software.
From Barron's ● May 27, 2026
UAVs are seen as a low-cost way to saturate targets and air defenses.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 5, 2026
“We go in and saturate an area with high visibility and view patrol,” said Sean Duryee, commissioner of the California Highway Patrol, standing at Newsom’s side.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 29, 2025
“It instead launched a campaign to manipulate and saturate the streaming services and airwaves.”
From BBC ● Nov. 26, 2024
Strange how one person can saturate a room with vitality, with excitement.
From "Travels with Charley in Search of America" by John Steinbeck
The harder question is what happens when that market saturates.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 12, 2026
Within the first three episodes starring Gatwa, Davies makes room for two broad song and dance numbers, introduces a supervillain played by “RuPaul’s Drag Race” royalty Jinkx Monsoon, and saturates sets with color.
From Salon ● May 10, 2024
The dancers wear separates that pop in a sunny array of orange, pink, purple, red and yellow and glow under Nicole Pearce’s lighting design, which saturates the stage with color.
From New York Times ● Mar. 21, 2024
The closure comes as an atmospheric river saturates the Seattle area, with heavy rain delivering moderate to heavy snowfall over the Cascades on Thursday, according to the National Weather Service.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 12, 2023
“A one in a billion—no trillion—anomaly, born from the oddness that saturates your county.”
From "The Last Last-Day-of-Summer" by Lamar Giles
His paintings, which look like a mashup of collage and stained glass, are immediate in their impact: Planes of saturated hues snap together in portraits, pictures of parties, and everyday scenes.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026
Water had saturated the mica schist and reactivated the old landslide.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 6, 2026
For decades, Kennedy says, the government has lied to Americans about saturated fat.
From Salon ● Aug. 5, 2026
"More encounters mean more footage of raccoons being funny and in today's fast-moving, saturated feeds, that footage can become a meme almost instantly."
From BBC ● Jul. 24, 2026
Edward, Jasper, and Emmett all had their hair entirely saturated with melting snow.
From "Twilight" by Stephenie Meyer
Sabroso maximizes the visual pop and sharp humor that defines every scene, saturating frames in “see me” colors popping citrusy in one moment and fiery in the next, lifting the cast’s audacious, extreme performances.
From Salon ● Dec. 17, 2025
The windows and patio doors failed in my apartment, sending water surging inside and saturating all of the rugs and much of the furniture.
From Slate ● Oct. 21, 2024
Through a series of voice notes and calls, Perkins took BBC News through the storm as it barrelled through her community, bringing howling winds and saturating the area with rain.
From BBC ● Oct. 10, 2024
“And it’s just a matter of it scaling up. We have a long way to go to ever come close to saturating the market for agave spirits, in my opinion.”
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 10, 2023
The liquid seeps into the paper, slowly saturating it until the entire tree glows a rich crimson in a forest of white.
From "The Night Circus" by Erin Morgenstern
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
