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Penetrating vs Penetrable - What's the difference?

penetrating | penetrable |

As adjectives the difference between penetrating and penetrable

is that penetrating is able to pierce or penetrate while penetrable is capable of being penetrated, entered, or pierced.

As a verb penetrating

is present participle of lang=en.

penetrating

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • able to pierce or penetrate
  • The skunk produces a penetrating odor.
  • demonstrating acute or keen understanding
  • His novel shows a penetrating insight into the criminal mind.

    Verb

    (head)
  • penetrable

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Capable of being penetrated, entered, or pierced.
  • * 1867 : , The Five Great Monarchies of the Ancient Eastern World
  • On the east the high mountain-chain of Zagros, penetrable only in one or two places, forms a barrier of the most marked character, and is beyond a doubt the natural limit for which we are looking.
  • * 1900 : Arthur M. Mann, The Boer in Peace and War
  • A Boer may know you, but it will take you some time to know him, and when a certain stage in your acquaintance is reached, you may begin to wonder whether his real nature is penetrable at all.
  • * 1996 : Peter Carruthers & Peter K. Smith, Theories of Theories of Mind
  • A capacity is cognitively penetrable in this sense if that capacity is affected by the subject's knowledge or ignorance of the domain.

    Antonyms

    * impenetrable

    References

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