chroma
Americannoun
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the purity of a color, or its freedom from white or gray.
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intensity of distinctive hue; saturation of a color.
noun
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the attribute of a colour that enables an observer to judge how much chromatic colour it contains irrespective of achromatic colour present See also saturation
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(in colour television) the colour component in a composite coded signal
Etymology
Origin of chroma
First recorded in 1885–90, chroma is from the Greek word chrôma color
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.
Meanwhile figures such as Albert H. Munsell, a painter-turned-color-theorist, devised systems that mapped color by hue, value and chroma in an effort to translate perception into measurable terms.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 27, 2026
But if there’s a little bit more ambient lighting, colors look washed out, or low in chroma.
From Salon • Nov. 16, 2024
The Watts Towers aim to split the sky into chroma, spires tiled with rubble nothing less than aspiration.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 14, 2024
Acid-green projected light — known as chroma green, used by film studios for “green screen” effects — bathes the big gallery off the rotunda.
From New York Times • Oct. 26, 2023
Other wave lengths, INTERMINGLING, make its chroma less pure.
From A Color Notation A measured color system, based on the three qualities Hue, Value and Chroma by Munsell, A. H. (Albert Henry)
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.
