gesättigter

Gesättigter is the attributive form of the German adjective gesättigt, meaning saturated, filled to capacity, or satiated. The term is used across everyday language and various scientific contexts to describe a state in which a substance or system has reached its maximum capacity for a given component or influence. In nutrition, for example, the related form gesättigte Fettsäuren denotes saturated fatty acids; in chemistry and related fields, gesättigte Verbindungen refers to saturated compounds that contain no additional capacity for certain types of bonds, such as hydrogen atoms.

Etymology and meaning share a common root with other forms of the verb sättigen (to saturate or satisfy). Gesättigt is the past participle, and gesättigter is the attributive, masculine singular form used before a noun in the nominative or accusative case in the absence of a definite article or after negation or certain determiners. Like other adjectives in German, gesättigter declines to reflect gender, number, and case: masculine singular may appear as gesättigter (unmarked or after possessives or negation), feminine singular as gesättigte, neuter singular as gesättigtes, and plural forms vary with article and case (e.g., gesättigte Fettsäuren vs. die gesättigten Fettsäuren).

In usage, gesättigt functions as an ordinary adjective and shares semantic ranges with related terms such as voll (full) in non-technical contexts and saturiert in technical German, while gesättigt and its inflected forms are standard in written and spoken German when describing saturation or satiation states. See also gesättigt, gesättigte Fettsäuren, gesättigte Verbindungen.