Saturation
Etymology
From Latin saturare, "to fill, sate, glut," from satur, "full, sated," a relative of satis, "enough." Chemistry fixed a precise sense: the point at which a solvent can dissolve no more of a substance. Marketing and media borrowed the metaphor for a market or audience that can absorb no more of a product or message.
noun · /sach-uh-RAY-shun/
The state of being filled to the point where no more can be absorbed or added.
What it names
The limit at which something is completely full — a solution, a market, an audience — so that additional input produces no further effect.
Example
The city had reached coffee-shop saturation; a new café now simply stole customers from the one next door.
Related idea
Glut stresses harmful oversupply and falling value; saturation stresses the ceiling itself — the full point beyond which extra amounts make no difference.
noun · /sach-uh-RAY-shun/
The intensity or purity of a color — how vivid it is, as opposed to washed-out or gray.
What it names
one of the three dimensions of color, alongside hue and brightness
Example
He dialed up the saturation until the reds looked almost neon.
Related idea
A fully saturated color is one “filled” to its purest — the same idea of being loaded to capacity, applied to pigment rather than a sponge or a market.