porous

American  

[pawr-uhs, pohr-] / ˈpɔr əs, ˈpoʊr- /

adjective

1. full of pores.

2. permeable by water, air, etc.

   Synonyms:

   riddled, sievelike, pervious, penetrable

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porous British  

/ ˈpɔːrəs /

adjective

1. permeable to water, air, or other fluids

2. biology geology having pores; poriferous

3. easy to cross or penetrate

   the porous border into Thailand

   the most porous defence in the league

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porous Scientific  

/ pôr′əs /

1. Having many pores or other small spaces that can hold a gas or liquid or allow it to pass through.

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Other Word Forms

• nonporous adjective
• nonporousness noun
• porously adverb
• porousness noun
• unporous adjective
• unporousness noun

Etymology

Origin of porous

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English, variant of porose, from Medieval Latin porōsus; pore ², -ous

Example Sentences

We’ve already seen how porous the line is between shortcuts deemed clever and those dismissed as lazy, often determined less by effort than by packaging.

From Salon

Bone surfaces are porous and filled with tiny blood vessel networks that exchange oxygen and nutrients with the bloodstream.

From Science Daily

Particles emitted from a fusion plasma will erode the reactor wall, contaminating the plasma and rendering most known materials brittle and porous within months.

From The Wall Street Journal

Of course, “best” is subjective, given how porous the borders of both “celebrity” and “memoir” have become.

From Los Angeles Times

At the time, they were still intensely focused on preventing terrorists trained in foreign lands from infiltrating America’s porous borders — as the 9/11 hijackers had.

From Los Angeles Times