penetrate
(verb)
verb
1. pass into or through, often by overcoming resistance
- The bullet penetrated her chest
Similar word(s): perforate
Definition categories: contact, enter
2. come to understand
Similar word(s): bottom, fathom
Definition categories: cognition, understand
3. become clear or enter one's consciousness or emotions
- she was penetrated with sorrow
Definition categories: cognition
4. enter a group or organization in order to spy on the members
Similar word(s): infiltrate
Definition categories: social, join
5. make one's way deeper into or through
- The hikers did not manage to penetrate the dense forest
Definition categories: motion, advance, progress
6. insert the penis into the vagina or anus of
- Did the molester penetrate the child?
Definition categories: contact, enter, infix, insert, introduce
7. spread or diffuse through
- music penetrated the entire building
Similar word(s): diffuse, imbue, interpenetrate, permeate, pervade, riddle
Definition categories: contact, penetrate, perforate
Sentences with penetrate as a verb:
- Light penetrates darkness.
- I could not penetrate Burke's opaque rhetoric.
- to penetrate one's heart with pity