penetrate

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If you dress it up with atoms, hydrogen atoms, that’s what it looks like when you have it on your computer, but actually it’s sort of more like this, in the sense that the atoms have a certain sphere that you cannot penetrate -- they repel.

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Definitions (26)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (12)

  1. transitive verb To enter or force a way into; pierce.
  2. transitive verb To enter into and permeate: The insistent rhythm of piano practice penetrated each room of the house.
  3. transitive verb To cause to be permeated or diffused; steep.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (5)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (2)

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This word has been looked up 307 times.

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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

keen ·  vivid ·  sharp ·  thoughtful ·  acute ·  profound ·  compel ·  intimate

Used in the same contextWord Family

penetrate:   penetrating ·  penetrated ·  penetrates
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Latin penetrāre, penetrāt-, from penitus, deeply.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. from Latin penetratus, past participle of penetrare (later Italian penetrare = Portuguese Spanish Provencal penetrar = French pénétrer), put, set, or place within, enter, pierce, penetrate, from penes, within, with (cf. penitus, within), + -trare (as in intrare, go in, enter, from intra, within), from √ tra, cross over, pass, as in trans, across, etc. (see trans-), Sanskrittar, cross.
 

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/ˈpɛnətreɪt/
by American Heritage

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