värvitu

Värvitu is an Estonian adjective meaning colorless or lacking color. It is used to describe substances, materials, or appearances that do not have visible color. The term appears in scientific, technical, and everyday language, and can be applied to liquids, glass, films, or other objects described as without pigment or hue. For example, water that appears clear and without color may be described as värvitu: Vesi on värvitu. The word can also describe colorless variants of materials, such as värvitu vedelik or värvitu klaas, depending on context.

Formation and related terms: Värvitu is formed from the noun värv (color) with the derivational suffix -itu, a productive pattern in Estonian for creating adjectives that express a state or condition. Antonyms include värvikas or värviline, meaning colorful or coloured, which describe the presence of color.

Grammar and usage notes: As an attributive adjective, värvitu generally agrees with the noun it modifies in number and case, following standard Estonian adjective agreement rules. It is used both predicatively (see the thing’s state) and attributively (modifying a noun directly). In everyday speech, it is common in discussions of substances, materials, and imaging where color is relevant, and it can also appear in scientific writing to denote the absence of color or pigment.

See also: värv (color), värvus (hue), värviline (colorful), pigment.