suffusion

Other forms: suffusions

Suffusion is when something slowly spreads throughout something else, like a feeling or a color. The suffusion of red into your friend's cheeks will show you that she's embarrassed, for example.

The noun suffusion is useful for talking about the gradual saturating of some substance or shade. You can watch the suffusion of tea from a tea bag into hot water, or sense the suffusion of excitement into a young boy on the day before his birthday. It's common to describe color with the word suffusion too, like the suffusion of pink into the evening sky at sunset. The Latin root is suffusionem, which means "a pouring over."

Definitions of suffusion

1. noun

   the process of permeating or infusing something with a substance
   synonyms: permeation, pervasion

   types:

   ammonification

   impregnation with ammonia or a compound of ammonia

   carbonation

   saturation with carbon dioxide (as soda water)

   impregnation, saturation

   the process of totally saturating something with a substance

   type of:

   diffusion

   (physics) the process in which there is movement of a substance from an area of high concentration of that substance to an area of lower concentration