Penetrate vs Impregnate - What's the difference?
penetrate | impregnate |
To enter into; to make way into the interior of; to pierce.
* {{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.
* Ray
To affect profoundly through the senses or feelings; to move deeply.
* M. Arnold
To infiltrate an enemy to gather intelligence.
To insert the penis into an opening, such as a vagina or anus. (rfex)
To cause to become pregnant.
To fertilize.
To saturate, or infuse.
To fill pores or spaces with a substance.
(dated) To become pregnant.
As verbs the difference between penetrate and impregnate
is that penetrate is to enter into; to make way into the interior of; to pierce while impregnate is to cause to become pregnant.penetrate
English
(Penetration)Verb
(penetrat)- Light penetrates darkness.
- I could not penetrate Burke's opaque rhetoric.
- things which here were too subtile for us to penetrate
- 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.
- (Shakespeare)
Derived terms
* penetration * penetrableExternal links
* * * ----impregnate
English
Verb
(impregnat)- I was impregnated at a clinic but don't know who the sperm donor is.
- It is recommended to impregnate new shoes before wearing them.
- (Addison)