Desaturated refers to something that has had its color reduced or taken away. It can be used in a variety of contexts, but most commonly describes images or colors with less intensity and vibrancy. For example, if an image is desaturated it will appear in shades of gray rather than the original full-color version. The term "desaturation" refers to the process of reducing the saturation level of a color, which can be done manually or through software tools that adjust the levels of red, green and blue light within an image.