penetrate
/ˈpɛnɪtɹeɪt/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.55 in modern English
11
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
3
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To enter into; to make way into the interior of; to pierce.
verb
To achieve understanding of, despite some obstacle; to comprehend; to understand.
verb
To infiltrate an enemy to gather intelligence.
Example Sentences
- "Light penetrates darkness."
- "He takes the prepared charcoal used by artists, brings it to a white heat, and suddenly plunges it in a bath of mercury, of which the globules instantly penetrate the pores of charcoal, and may be said to metallize it."
- "The native-born and the "naturalised" locomotives have been giving way to the standardised types, of which the L.M.S.R. class "5" 4-6-0 has led the way and has penetrated the furthest."
- "Considerable interest has developed within the defense community during recent years in weapons that are capable of penetrating some distance into the earth before detonating. […] To be generally effective, earth penetrating weapons (EPW) must be capable of penetrating various geologic targets, ranging from soil to rock, without producing critical damage to the payload."
- "and they, ... they .... fly though space, and they penetrate the atmosphere[…]after an amazing nine-month journey"
- "Our results also identified the causative mutation of polydactylous Silkie was not exist in other nonpolydactyly chickens, suggesting that SNP of polydactyly in Silkie has fully penetrated all other indigenous Chinese chicken breeds."
Etymology
Origin
- Source language: Latin