sepia

[ see-pee-uh ]

noun

1. a brown pigment obtained from the inklike secretion of various cuttlefish and used with brush or pen in drawing.
2. a drawing made with this pigment.
3. a dark brown.
4. Photography. a print or photograph made in this color.
5. any of several cuttlefish of the genus Sepia, producing a dark fluid used naturally for defense and, by humans, in ink.

adjective

1. of a brown, grayish brown, or olive brown similar to that of sepia ink.

sepia

/ ˈsiːpɪə /

noun

1. a dark reddish-brown pigment obtained from the inky secretion of the cuttlefish
2. any cuttlefish of the genus Sepia
3. a brownish tone imparted to a photograph, esp an early one such as a calotype. It can be produced by first bleaching a print (after fixing) and then immersing it for a short time in a solution of sodium sulphide or of alkaline thiourea
4. a brownish-grey to dark yellowish-brown colour
5. a drawing or photograph in sepia

adjective

1. of the colour sepia or done in sepia

   a sepia print

Other Words From

• sepi·a·like adjective
• se·pic [see, -pik, sep, -ik], adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of sepia¹

1560–70; < Latin sēpia cuttlefish, its secretion < Greek sēpía; akin to sêpsis sepsis

Word History and Origins

Origin of sepia¹

C16: from Latin: a cuttlefish, from Greek; related to Greek sēpein to make rotten

Example Sentences

Another upside of Readability mode is that you can also apply light, dark, and sepia themes, tweak things like font, text width, and line height, and use a slider to apply a greyscale layer to the page to reduce contrast.

From Popular-Science

A garnish isn’t required, but some chopped scallions, scattered on top, takes dinner from sepia to special.

From Washington Post

A sepia photo shows him as a young boy, head in his hands, with a large book open at a bar table.

From The Daily Beast

Painting Moominvalley in sepia to save print costs in The Great Flood, Jansson somehow makes it a riot of imagined color.

From The Daily Beast

Each of those women had a sepia photograph on the mantelpiece, of a young man in uniform.

From The Daily Beast

Both play within a relatively constrained color palette rich in sepia yellow, with strategic daubs of sky blue and red.

From The Daily Beast

With a book about Jane Franklin and her life of letters to her brother Benjamin, sepia yellow connotes yellowing papers.

From The Daily Beast

We were, apparently, a beacon in that sepia waste where modern undersea monsters were lurking.

From Project Gutenberg

Four, five or six eggs are laid; these are of a pale greenish-blue hue, speckled or flaked with sepia markings.

From Project Gutenberg

Fanning the bills out like a hand of cards he stared at their sepia and gold faces, trying to get the reality through his head.

From Project Gutenberg

Aquatint, a method of etching on copper by which a beautiful effect is produced, resembling a fine drawing in sepia or Indian ink.

From Project Gutenberg

Whistler showed him "several examples done with the brush in sepia, in old French or Spanish styles," whatever this may mean.

From Project Gutenberg