impenetrable
Syllables: im·pen·e·tra·ble/ɪmˈpɛnətɹəbəl/
impenetrable adjective: not penetrable.
Adjective
impenetrable (not comparable)
- Not penetrable.
- The fortress is impenetrable, so it cannot be taken.
- The avalanche spread and stopped, locking everything it carried into an icy cocoon. It was now a jagged, virtually impenetrable pile of ice, longer than a football field and nearly as wide.2012, John Branch, “Snow fall: The avalanche at Tunnel Creek”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 11 Jun 2024
- Synonyms:
- impermeable, impregnable
- Antonyms:
- penetrable, permeable, pregnable
- Opaque; obscure; not translucent or transparent.
- When night falls, she cloaks the world in impenetrable darkness.1991, Varg Vikernes, “Dunkelheit”, performed by Burzum
- Incomprehensible; fathomless; inscrutable.
- Business jargon makes this document impenetrable—I can’t understand it.
- Synonyms:
- unfathomable, abstruse, Chinese, dense, enigmatic, fathomless, bottomless, Greek, inapprehensible, incognizable
- Antonyms:
- fathomable, apprehensible, clear, limpid, comprehensible, explainable, explicable, explicatable, graspable, illuminable
Noun
impenetrable (plural impenetrables)
- A person not openly given to friendship.
- I should lose the reputation that I am gradually acquiring among our impenetrables here, were I to confess the excitement which I felt at the idea of entering his house—the house of that great general under whose command you made your first charge.1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “Chapter XXVI. Lady Marchmont to Sir Jasper Meredith.”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 236
impenetrable meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
impenetrable in Hindi
- not penetrable
- अभेद्य abhedya
impenetrable in Tamil
- புகவிடாத
impenetrable in Marathi
- दुर्भेद्य
impenetrable in Urdu
- ناقابل سرائیت
More languagesFewer languages
- impenetrable in Bengali
- দুর্ভেদ্য durbheddo
- impenetrable in Malayalam
- ഭേദിക്കാനാവാത്ത, അഭേദ്യം, ഉള്ളിലേക്കു കടക്കാനാവാത്ത, അച്ഛേദ്യമായ
- impenetrable in Kannada
- ಒಳಹೋಗಲಾಗದ, ಅರಿಯಲಾಗದ
- impenetrable in Gujarati
- અભેદ્ય
Examples of impenetrable in a sentence
- The market for new video games isn’t just oversaturated — it’s nearly impenetrable.
- There was no great gate around this palace as the entire city was considered impenetrable.
- The conjoined pawns, an impenetrable knot, begin to roll queenward, leaving Black hopelessly uncoordinated.
Synonyms of impenetrable
23 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Antonyms
- penetrable
- permeable
- pregnable
- fathomable
- apprehensible
- clear
- limpid
- comprehensible
- explainable
- explicable
10 more antonymsFewer antonyms
Forms of impenetrable
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| alternative form | inpenetrable |
| Noun | |
| plural | impenetrables |
Origin of impenetrable
From Middle English inpenetrabel, inpenetrabyle, from Middle French impenetrable or directly from its etymon, Latin impenetrābilis. By surface analysis, im- + penetrable.
Words formed from impenetrable
Questions about impenetrable
- What does impenetrable mean?
- Impenetrable means not penetrable.
- What is impenetrable in Hindi?
- Impenetrable in Hindi is अभेद्य (abhedya). See Impenetrable meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is impenetrable?
- Impenetrable can be an adjective or a noun.
- How do you pronounce impenetrable?
- Impenetrable is pronounced /ɪmˈpɛnətɹəbəl/.
Words near impenetrable in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: impenetrable (page history and authors); impenetrable (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); impenetrable (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); impenetrable (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); দুর্ভেদ্য (Bengali) (page history and authors); impenetrable (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); impenetrable (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); impenetrable (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-impenetrable.wav.
Cite this entry: “impenetrable.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/impenetrable. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.