Pronunciation: [ˌakɹə͡ʊmˈatəs] (IPA) 
The word "achromatous" is spelled as "əˈkroʊmətəs" in IPA phonetic transcription. The first syllable "ə" is a schwa sound, while "kroʊ" is pronounced as "crow", followed by "mə" which is pronounced as "muh", and finally, "təs" is pronounced as "tus". This word means without color or lacking pigmentation. It is commonly used in biology to describe cells or organisms that do not have any coloration.
Achromatous is an adjective primarily used in the field of optics and color perception. It describes a state or quality of lacking color or being colorless. The term is derived from the Greek words "a" (meaning without) and "chroma" (meaning color).
In the context of optics, achromatous refers to the absence of chromatic aberration in a lens system. Chromatic aberration refers to the distortion of colors that can occur when light passes through a lens, resulting in fringes and blurring. An achromatous lens corrects this aberration by using a combination of lenses with different refractive indices, balancing the wavelengths of light to bring them to a common focus.
Beyond optics, achromatous can be used metaphorically to describe objects, substances, or phenomena that exhibit a lack of color. For example, an achromatous painting might consist solely of shades of black, white, and sometimes gray. In the realm of biology, achromatous could be associated with albino animals lacking pigmentation and therefore having a colorless or white appearance.
Overall, achromatous describes a condition of being colorless, typically related to optics, but also applicable metaphorically to various objects or natural phenomena that lack chromatic qualities.
Colorless, unpigmented.
A practical medical dictionary. By Stedman, Thomas Lathrop. Published 1920.
The word achromatous is derived from the Greek word achromatos, which is a combination of a- (meaning without or not) and chroma (meaning color). The suffix -ous is added to indicate that something is characterized by or full of the preceding quality, in this case, being without color. Therefore, achromatous literally means without color or colorless.
