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Penetrate vs Disintegrate - What's the difference?

penetrate | disintegrate |

As verbs the difference between penetrate and disintegrate

is that penetrate is to enter into; to make way into the interior of; to pierce while disintegrate is to undo the integrity of, break into parts.

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

    disintegrate

    English

    Verb

    (disintegrat)
  • To undo the integrity of, break into parts.
  • * Kirwan
  • Marlites are not disintegrated by exposure to the atmosphere, at least in six years.
  • To fall apart, break up into parts.
  • Synonyms

    * (qualifier) dismember, dissolve * compost, decay, dissolve

    Antonyms

    * integrate

    Derived terms

    * disintegration * disintegrative * disintegrator