impregnate
Americanverb (used with object)
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impregnates,
present (3rd person singular)
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impregnated,
past participle, past
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impregnating
present participle
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to make pregnant; cause to be with child or young.
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to fertilize.
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to cause to be permeated or saturated with a substance.
To relieve cold and flu symptoms, impregnate a handkerchief with oils of eucalyptus and mint and inhale its scent.
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to fill the interstices, openings, or cells of (a fine network, or the like) with a substance.
The stainless steel housing contains a ceramic honeycomb impregnated with platinum, rhodium, and palladium.
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to infuse or imbue with some quality or element.
Picasso’s later paintings are impregnated with a certain melancholy.
The air was pleasantly impregnated with the odor of pines.
adjective
verb
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to saturate, soak, or infuse
to impregnate a cloth with detergent
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to imbue or permeate; pervade
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to cause to conceive; make pregnant
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to fertilize (an ovum)
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to make (land, soil, etc) fruitful
adjective
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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impregnationnoun
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impregnatornoun
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reimpregnationnoun
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self-impregnationnoun
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self-impregnatornoun
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reimpregnateverb (used with object)
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impregnatoryadjective
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self-impregnatingadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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impregnatesimple
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impregnatessimple
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have impregnatedperfect
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has impregnatedperfect
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am impregnatingprogressive
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are impregnatingprogressive
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is impregnatingprogressive
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have been impregnatingperfect progressive
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has been impregnatingperfect progressive
Past
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impregnatedsimple
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had impregnatedperfect
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was impregnatingprogressive
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were impregnatingprogressive
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had been impregnatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of impregnate
First recorded in 1535–45; from Late Latin impraegnātus, past participle of impraegnāre “to fertilize, impregnate,” equivalent to im- im- 1 ( def. ) + praegn-, stem of praegnās, variant of praegnāns (stem praegnant-) “pregnant, with child” + -ātus past participle suffix; see origin at pregnant 1 ( def. ), -ate 1 ( def. )
Explanation
Use the verb impregnate to describe what happens when a male of any animal species makes a female pregnant. Human fathers impregnate mothers — otherwise, they would not become fathers. When dog breeders mate two German shepherds, they hope that the male will impregnate the female, or make her pregnant. When your cat has kittens, it's because the neighbor's cat impregnated her several months earlier. The Latin root, impraegnare, comes from in, "into," and praegnare, "pregnant."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Male jewel beetles, having evolved to respond to the exciting sight, are known to mistake orange peels for potential mates and die in a fruitless attempt to impregnate them.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 25, 2026
When the cow reached maturity, the team unsuccessfully attempted to impregnate her using standard artificial insemination techniques.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 13, 2024
However, four weeks after the male mice stopped receiving YCT529, they were able to impregnate the female mice again.
From Salon ● Feb. 17, 2023
Female sea horses utilize a protruding egg duct to essentially impregnate the male sea horse with her eggs, which he fertilizes and eventually births.
From New York Times ● Jan. 10, 2023
Three ounces of the above will impregnate a quart of vinegar or wine with a very agreeable relish.
From The Cook's Oracle; and Housekeeper's Manual by William Kitchiner
Some of the plot elements are similar: In Raising Gazorpazorp, Morty grapples with becoming a single father after he accidentally impregnates an alien robot.
From Time ● Jul. 27, 2017
When eaten, the cysts are destroyed by the digestive juices, and in two or three days the adult worm develops; the male impregnates the female and then dies.
From Time Magazine Archive
This forced feeding thoroughly impregnates the cotton in the fuel chamber of the lighter, minimizes evaporation, and yet permits Lyterlife to feed into the wick as readily as a liquid.
From Time Magazine Archive
She impregnates every human being with the qualities of her soul.
The grave and melancholy mood that so deeply impregnates the work of Maeterlinck is tinged in the earlier stage, as has been pointed out, with the sombre coloring of fatalism.
From Prophets of Dissent : Essays on Maeterlinck, Strindberg, Nietzsche and Tolstoy by Otto Heller
“The inmate Carroll impregnated is not one of the two victims in this case,” Assistant District Attorney Eric DuTemple said in an email this week.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026
The medical profession successfully argued for an exemption from the wet wipe ban, arguing that non-plastic wipes absorb too much of the detergents and disinfectants impregnated in them, with potential consequences for patient safety.
From BBC ● Nov. 17, 2025
The maggots arrived at her doctor’s office impregnated in a gauze pad.
From Slate ● Feb. 25, 2024
In January 2021, she was impregnated via embryo transfer at the facility, the complaint says.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 1, 2023
As soon as the group of friends went into the plantings the air became impregnated with a fatal fragrance.
From "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
In an Instagram preview to the interview that was posted this week, Tasha K’s edited caption read, “We never accused him of impregnating another woman.. it was only cheating‼️”
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 27, 2023
Writing in a paper in 1772, the scientist Joseph Priestly described the process as "impregnating water with fixed air".
From Salon ● Sep. 1, 2022
Ngandu was accused by a young woman of impregnating her.
From Seattle Times ● May 11, 2021
Jaime Phillips, a woman apparently working for a conservative watchdog group called Project Veritas, contacted the Post with a bogus story about Moore impregnating her when she was 15.
From Slate ● Nov. 29, 2017
The act rendering alkaline by impregnating with an alkali; a conferring of alkaline qualities.
From Webster's Unabridged Dictionary by Noah Webster
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
