Shade

A colour darkened toward black, as a tint is lightened toward white. The palette's lower staircase.

Shades deepen a hue without changing its name: add black, in practice often a touch of a darker neighbour, and the colour steps down into weight and shadow. Together with tints they give one hue a full ladder, from near-white air to near-black ground, all provably related.

The craft caveat is that pure black deadens: mixing a shade with black alone drains the hue's life, which is why painters darken with complements and why our inks are not neutral black but a blue-dark with breath in it. A good shade still reads as its colour, only lower lit.