penetrable

See also: pénétrable

English

Etymology

From Middle English penetrable, penytrable, from Old French penetrable, from Medieval Latin penetrābilis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpɛnətɹəbəl/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Adjective

penetrable (comparative more penetrable, superlative most penetrable)

1. Capable of being penetrated, entered, or pierced.
   • 1867, George Rawlinson, The Five Great Monarchies of the Ancient Eastern World:

     On the east the high mountain-chain of Zagros, penetrable only in one or two places, forms a barrier of the most marked character, and is beyond a doubt the natural limit for which we are looking.

2. (figuratively) Capable of being fully understood.
   • 1900, Arthur M. Mann, The Boer in Peace and War:

     A Boer may know you, but it will take you some time to know him, and when a certain stage in your acquaintance is reached, you may begin to wonder whether his real nature is penetrable at all.

   • 1996, Peter Carruthers, Peter K. Smith, Theories of Theories of Mind:

     A capacity is cognitively penetrable in this sense if that capacity is affected by the subject's knowledge or ignorance of the domain.

Antonyms

• impenetrable

Derived terms

• interpenetrable
• nonpenetrable
• unpenetrable

Related terms

• penetrableness
• penetrably

Translations

capable of being penetrated

Bulgarian: проницаем (bg) (pronicaem) Catalan: penetrable Czech: proniknutelný m Dutch: doordringbaar (nl) Finnish: läpäistävä, läpäistävissä oleva French: pénétrable (fr) Galician: penetrable (gl), penetrábel (gl) German: durchlässig (de) Italian: penetrabile (it), perforabile, trapassabile Latin: penetrābilis Macedonian: пробоен (proboen), пробивен (probiven) Manx: yn-towlagh Polish: penetrowalny Portuguese: penetrável Romanian: penetrabil (ro) m Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: про́бо̄јан Roman: próbōjan (sh) Spanish: penetrable

References

• “penetrable”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• repentable

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /peneˈtɾable/ [pe.neˈt̪ɾa.β̞le]
• Rhymes: -able
• Syllabification: pe‧ne‧tra‧ble

Adjective

penetrable m or f (masculine and feminine plural penetrables)

1. penetrable

Further reading

• “penetrable”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025