Supernatant vs. Decantation — What's the Difference?

Denoting the liquid lying above a solid residue after crystallization, precipitation, centrifugation, or other process

Decantation is a process for the separation of mixtures of immiscible liquids or of a liquid and a solid mixture such as a suspension. The layer closer to the top of the container—the less dense of the two liquids, or the liquid from which the precipitate or sediment has settled out—is poured off, leaving the other component or the more dense liquid of the mixture behind.

A volume of supernatant liquid

To pour off (wine, for example) without disturbing the sediment.

Floating on the surface.

To pour (a liquid) from one container into another.

The clear fluid above a sediment or precipitate.

To aerate (a wine) by pouring it into a spacious vessel and leaving it exposed to the air for a period of time

Lying or floating above a denser fluid, or above a solid sediment or precipitate (which has been separated by crystallisation, centrifugation etc.).

The act of decanting the supernatant liquid from a solid sediment

The liquid that lies above a sediment or precipitate; supernate

The act of pouring off a clear liquor gently from its lees or sediment, or from one vessel into another.

Material that floats on the surface of a liquid

Swimming above; floating on the surface; as, oil supernatant on water.

The liquid remaining after solids suspended in the liquid have been sedimented by gravity or by centrifugation. Contrasted with the solid sediment, or (in centrifugation) the pellet.

A liquid lying above a sediment (floating on the surface)

Of a liquid; floating on the surface above a sediment or precipitate;