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Diffusion vs Penetrate - What's the difference?

diffusion | penetrate |

As a noun diffusion

is diffusion (physics: the intermingling of the molecules of a fluid due to random thermal agitation).

As a verb penetrate is

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

diffusion

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • the act of diffusing or dispersing something, or the property of being diffused or dispersed; dispersion
  • (physics) the scattering of light by reflection from a rough surface, or by passage through a translucent medium
  • (physics) the intermingling of the molecules of a fluid due to random thermal agitation
  • the spread of cultural or linguistic practices, or social institutions, in one or more communities
  • (physics, weather) Exchange of airborne media between regions in space in an apparently random motion of a small scale.
  • the movement of water vapor from regions of high concentration (high water vapor pressure) toward regions of lower concentration.
  • penetrate

    English

    (Penetration)

    Verb

    (penetrat)
  • To enter into; to make way into the interior of; to pierce.
  • Light penetrates darkness.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1879, title=The Telephone, the Microphone and the Phonograph
  • , author=Th Du Moncel, page=166, publisher=Harper , passage=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.}}
  • (figuratively) To achieve understanding of, despite some obstacle; to comprehend; to understand.
  • I could not penetrate Burke's opaque rhetoric.
  • * Ray
  • things which here were too subtile for us to penetrate
  • To affect profoundly through the senses or feelings; to move deeply.
  • to penetrate one's heart with pity
  • * M. Arnold
  • The translator of Homer should penetrate himself with a sense of the plainness and directness of Homer's style.
    (Shakespeare)
  • To infiltrate an enemy to gather intelligence.
  • To insert the penis into an opening, such as a vagina or anus. (rfex)
  • Derived terms

    * penetration * penetrable