penetrate

See also: penetrãte

English

Etymology

From Latin penētrātus, past participle of penētrō (“to put, set, or place within, enter, pierce, penetrate”), from penes (“within, with”) by analogy to intrō (“to go in, enter”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpɛnɪtɹeɪt/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: pen‧e‧trate

Verb

1. To enter into; to make way into the interior of; to pierce.

   Light penetrates darkness.

   • 1879, Th Du Moncel, The Telephone, the Microphone and the Phonograph, Harper, page 166:

     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.

2. (figuratively) To achieve understanding of, despite some obstacle; to comprehend; to understand.

   I could not penetrate Burke's opaque rhetoric.

   • (Can we date this quote by Ray and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)

     things which here were too subtile for us to penetrate

3. To affect profoundly through the senses or feelings; to move deeply.

   to penetrate one's heart with pity

   • (Can we date this quote by M. Arnold and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)

     The translator of Homer should penetrate himself with a sense of the plainness and directness of Homer's style.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Shakespeare to this entry?)

4. To infiltrate an enemy to gather intelligence.
5. To insert the penis into an opening, such as a vagina or anus. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
6. (chess) To move a piece past the defending pieces of one's opponent.

Derived terms

• penetration
• penetrable

Translations

enter into

• Arabic: اِخْتَرَقَ (iḵtaraqa)
• Aromanian: pitrundu
• Bengali: ঢুকানো (ḑhukano)
• Catalan: penetrar (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 深入 (zh) (shēnrù), 穿透 (zh) (chuāntòu), 穿入 (zh) (chuānrù)

• Czech: proniknout (cs) pf, pronikat (cs) impf
• Danish: trænge ind
• Dutch: indringen (nl)
• Esperanto: penetri
• Estonian: läbistama
• Finnish: tunkeutua (fi), työntyä
• French: pénétrer (fr)
• Galician: penetrar (gl)
• Georgian: შეღწევა (šeɣc̣eva)
• German: eindringen (de), penetrieren (de)
• Hungarian: behatol (hu)
• Irish: treáigh
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Italian: penetrare (it)
• Japanese: 貫通する (かんつうする, kantsū-suru), 突き通る (つきとおる, tsukitōru)
• Korean: 침투하다 (ko) (chimtu-hada)
• Latin: intrō (la), penetrō
• Lithuanian: skverbtis impf, prasiskverbti pf, įsiskverbti pf, kišti impf
• Maori: ngoto
• Norwegian: trenge inn
• Old English: ġeondfaran
• Persian: سفتن (fa) (softan), آژیدن (fa) (āžīdan)
• Polish: przenikać (pl) impf
• Portuguese: penetrar (pt)
• Romanian: penetra (ro), pătrunde (ro)
• Russian: проника́ть (ru) impf (pronikátʹ), прони́кнуть (ru) pf (proníknutʹ)
• Spanish: penetrar (es)
• Swedish: intränga, penetrera (sv)
• Tagalog: pasukin
• Turkish: sokmak (tr)

insert the penis into an opening, such as a vagina

• Bengali: ঢুকানো (ḑhukano)
• Dutch: penetreren (nl)
• Estonian: läbistama
• Finnish: penetroida
• Galician: penetrar (gl)
• German: penetrieren (de)
• Hungarian: behatol (hu)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Korean: 삽입하다 (ko) (삽입하다)
• Lithuanian: kišti impf
• Persian: سپوختن (fa) (sopūxtan)
• Romanian: pătrunde (ro), penetra (ro)
• Tagalog: pasukin
• Turkish: sokmak (tr)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Dutch: penetreren (1)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}

Further reading

• “penetrate”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “penetrate”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “penetrate”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

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Esperanto

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /penetˈrate/

Verb

penetrate

1. present adverbial passive participle of penetri

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Italian

Verb

penetrate

1. second-person plural present indicative of penetrare
2. second-person plural imperative of penetrare
3. feminine plural of penetrato

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Latin

Verb

(deprecated template usage) penetrāte

1. second-person plural present active imperative of penetrō