Ranked by relevance and common usage.
Keep "sepia" when the sentence already sounds natural, when a synonym would add unintended emphasis, or when readers need the most familiar wording. A synonym should clarify or sharpen the message, not simply make the sentence look more varied.
If two options seem close, choose the one that best matches the audience and purpose of the sentence.
Choose a synonym only if it keeps the core idea of "sepia" intact in the sentence you are editing.
Check whether the replacement sounds more formal, casual, emotional, technical, or forceful than the original word.
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Review note: Synonym lists are ranked with lexical data and reviewed for practical writing value. Use the comparison notes, sentence evidence, and source labels together; a high-ranking synonym can still be wrong when the audience, register, or grammar changes.
After choosing a replacement for "sepia", read the sentence once for meaning and once for rhythm. The best synonym should feel natural in the full sentence, not only accurate in a word list.
If the synonym makes the sentence slower, vaguer, or more dramatic than intended, keep "sepia" or choose a simpler alternative from the closest-match group.
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5 total sentences available.
Thus in vase pictures, when Poseidon upheaves the island of Cos to overwhelm the Giant Polybotes, the island is represented as an immense mass of rock; the parts which have been under water are indicated by a dolphin, a shrimp, and a sepia, the parts above the water by a goat and a serpent.
Source: tatoeba (11778783)
Another sunny day, this 1st of August of 2025, here on Lulu Island. At Tim Hortons café, whilst I was drinking oat-milk iced coffee, I was talking with Hans the Dutchman, sitting in his motorized wheelchair. He was enjoying a Boston cream donut and a peach sparkling quencher. We talked about my great-great-grandfather Dimitri, from Kimi on Evia Island, Greece. My Filipino family has an ancient sepia picture of him sitting as if he were Count Dracula. Hans told me that he has a woman cousin from Netherlands, who escaped the cold climate to live indefinitely in sunnier Greece. She's been overstaying there for 20-plus years! At home, my Greek-Cypriot neighbour George came by to give my family a big bag of cute green figs. He's married to a Japanese, Chika, and they have two hybrid daughters, Chloe and Anna. I toured the Greek mainland and islands in 2002, but never reached Kimi. I've read the travelogue, The Olive Grove: Travels in Greece, by Katherine Kizilos, a Greek-Australian, and it seems that Greece is also nice in the off-season.
Source: tatoeba (13380594)
Sepia had some use in ancient times as a writing ink, and in modern times has has occasionally been used as a pigment, but it never attained any popularity, as it is extremely fugitive.
Source: wiktionary
Sepia Delft tiles surrounded the fireplace, their crudely drawn Biblical scenes in faded cyclamen blending with the pinkish pine, while above them, instead of a mantelshelf, there was an archway high enough to form a balcony with slender balusters and a tapestry-hung wall behind.
Source: wiktionary
Showing 4 of 5 available sentences.
Closest matches include antiqued, beige, brown, brown color, brown pigment.
Compare the replacement against real sentence context. This entry includes sample sentences so you can check tone, grammar, and meaning before swapping words.