impenetrable
[im-pen-i-truh-buhl]
adjective
not penetrable; that cannot be penetrated, pierced, entered, etc.
inaccessible to ideas, influences, etc.
incapable of being understood; inscrutable; unfathomable: an impenetrable mystery.
Physics. possessing impenetrability.
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Lexical Investigations: LabyrinthA motley combination of Anglo-Saxon, Latin, and Germanic dialects, the English language (more or less as we know it) coalesced between the 9th and 13th centuries. Since then, it has continued to import and borrow words and expressions from around the world, and the meanings have mutated. (Awesome and awful once meant nearly the same thing.) Some specimens in the English vocabulary have followed unusually …
RELATED WORDS
impervious, impassable, bulletproof, unintelligible, unfathomable, baffling, unaccountable, arcane, inexplicable, inscrutable, mysterious, close, compact, firm, hard, hermetic, impermeable, inviolable, solid, substantial
Nearby words
- impeller,
- impend,
- impendent,
- impending,
- impenetrability,
- impenitence,
- impenitent,
- impennate,
- imper.,
- imperatival
Origin of impenetrable
SYNONYMS FOR impenetrable
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019
Examples from the Web for impenetrable
impenetrable
adjective
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
impenetrable
mid-15c., from Middle French impenetrable, from Latin impenetrabilis "that cannot be penetrated," from assimilated form of in- "not, opposite of" (see in- (1)) + penetrabilis "penetrable" (see penetrate). Related: Impenetrably; impenetrability.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper