Word.ws English Dictionary

penetrate

Syllables: pen·e·trate/ˈpɛnɪtɹeɪt/

penetrate verb: to enter into; to make way into the interior of; to pierce.

Verb

penetrate (third-person singular simple present penetrates, present participle penetrating, simple past and past participle penetrated)

  1. To enter into; to make way into the interior of; to pierce.
    • 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.1879, Th Du Moncel, The Telephone, the Microphone and the Phonograph, Harper, page 166
    Synonyms:
    ransack
  2. (figuratively) To achieve understanding of, despite some obstacle; to comprehend; to understand.
    • I could not penetrate Burke's opaque rhetoric.
    • things which here were […]too subtile for us to penetrate1691, John Ray, The Wisdom of God Manifested in the Works of the Creation. […], London: […] Samuel Smith, […], →OCLC
  3. To affect profoundly through the senses or feelings; to move deeply.
    • to penetrate one's heart with pity
    • The translator of Homer should penetrate himself with a sense of the plainness and directness of Homer's style.1867, Matthew Arnold, On the Study of Celtic Literature
  4. To infiltrate an enemy to gather intelligence.
  5. To insert the penis into an orifice, such as a vagina, mouth, or anus.
    • a male elephant comes up and penetrates the female
    • His weapons have been destroyed; his body has been or can be penetrated. In other words, he is rapable.2005, Patricia Vettel-Becker, Shooting from the hip: photography, masculinity, and postwar America
  6. To move a piece past the defending pieces of one's opponent.

penetrate meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

penetrate in Hindi

to penetrate or to be driven , to stick , pierce
गड़ना gaṛnā

penetrate in Tamil

ஊடுருவு

penetrate in Marathi

to penetrate
रुतणे rutṇe

penetrate in Urdu

to penetrate
سالنا sālnā
to penetrate, pierce
گھسنا ghusnā
More languagesFewer languages
penetrate in Bengali
ঢুকানো ḍhukanō
penetrate in Telugu
చొచ్చుకుపోవడానికి, చొచ్చుకుపోవటానికి
penetrate in Malayalam
തുളച്ചുകയറുക, മനസ്സിൽ പതിക്കുക, കിഴിഞ്ഞു കയറുക, നുഴഞ്ഞു പ്രവേശിക്കുക
penetrate in Kannada
ಭೇದಿಸಿಕೊಂಡು ಹೋಗು, ಒಳನುಗ್ಗು, ದಾರಿ ಮಾಡಿಕೊಂಡು ಹೋಗು, ಪ್ರವೇಶಿಸು
penetrate in Punjabi
وڑنا vaṛnā
penetrate in Odia
ଭୁକିବା bhukibā
penetrate in Sanskrit
गाह् gāh
penetrate in Tagalog
pasukin
penetrate in Arabic
اِخْتَرَقَ iḵtaraqa
penetrate in Persian
سفتن softan, آژیدن âžidan, سپوختن sopuxtan

Examples of penetrate in a sentence

  • 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.1958 July, J. P. Wilson, “Scottish Soliloquy”, in Railway Magazine, page 495:
  • and they, ... they .... fly though space, and they penetrate the atmosphere[…]after an amazing nine-month journey2013, Space Babies:
  • I am advised to give her music o' mornings; they say it will penetrate1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories...

All 40 example sentences with penetrate

Synonyms of penetrate

Forms of penetrate

third-person singular presentpenetrates
present participlepenetrating
past participlepenetrated
pastpenetrated

Past tense of penetrate: penetrated

Origin of penetrate

From Latin penētrātus, perfect passive participle of penētrō (“to put, set, or place within, enter, pierce, penetrate”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), from penes (“within, with”) by analogy to intrō (“to go in, enter”). Compare French pénétrer.

Words formed from penetrate

Phrases with penetrate

Questions about penetrate

What does penetrate mean?
Penetrate means to enter into; to make way into the interior of; to pierce.
What is penetrate in Hindi?
Penetrate in Hindi is गड़ना (gaṛnā). See Penetrate meaning in Hindi.
How do you use penetrate in a sentence?
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.
What part of speech is penetrate?
Penetrate is a verb.
How do you pronounce penetrate?
Penetrate is pronounced /ˈpɛnɪtɹeɪt/.
What is the past tense of penetrate?
The past tense of penetrate is penetrated.

Words near penetrate in the dictionary

  1. penetrancies
  2. penetrancy
  3. penetrant
  4. penetrantly
  5. penetrants
  6. penetrate
  7. penetrated
  8. penetratee
  9. penetratees
  10. penetrates
  11. penetratest

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: penetrate (page history and authors); गड़ना (Hindi) (page history and authors); penetrate (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); रुतणे (Marathi) (page history and authors); سالنا (Urdu) (page history and authors); penetrate (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); penetrate (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); penetrate (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); وڑنا (Punjabi) (page history and authors); ଭୁକିବା (Odia) (page history and authors); गाह् (Sanskrit) (page history and authors). 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: en-us-penetrate.ogg.

Cite this entry: “penetrate.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/penetrate. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.