在物理科学和电机工程学中，色散关系描述波在介质中传播的色散现象的性质。色散关系将波的波长或波数与其频率创建了联系。由这组关系，波的相速度和群速度有了方便的确定介质中折射率的表达式。克拉莫-克若尼关系式可以描述波的传播、衰减的频率依赖性，这关系比与几何相关和与材料相关的色散关系更具一般性。

色散的原因可能是几何边界条件（波导、浅水）或是波与传输介质间的相互作用。基本粒子（被认为是物质波）即使在没有集合约束和其他介质存在下也会有非平凡的色散关系。

在存在色散的情况下，波速不再唯一定义，从而产生了相速度和群速度的区别。

In physical sciences and electrical engineering, dispersion relations describe the effect of dispersion in a medium on the properties of a wave traveling within that medium. A dispersion relation relates the wavelength or wavenumber of a wave to its frequency. From this relation the phase velocity and group velocity of the wave have convenient expressions which then determine the refractive index of the medium. More general than the geometry-dependent and material-dependent dispersion relations, there are the overarching Kramers–Kronig relations that describe the frequency dependence of wave propagation and attenuation.