Supernatant vs. Decantation

(of a liquid) Lying above a sediment or precipitate

Floating on the surface of a liquid

Example: ‘oil supernatant on water’;

The liquid that lies above a sediment or precipitate; supernate

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;

Example: ‘the supernatant fat was skimmed off’;

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

Example: ‘carefully transfer the supernatant fluid into a 15 ml centrifuge tube’;

a volume of supernatant liquid

Example: ‘the supernatants were filtered and analysed’;

the act of decanting the supernatant liquid from a solid sediment

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

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.