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
In 2022, a federal court jury in Vermont awarded a woman $5.25 million from a doctor who used his own sperm to impregnate her during an artificial insemination procedure in 1977.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 13, 2023
However, four weeks after the male mice stopped receiving YCT529, they were able to impregnate the female mice again.
From Salon ● Feb. 17, 2023
To prepare, treat, impregnate, or coat with bitumen.
From Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (2nd 100 Pages) by Noah Webster
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
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
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
It is a micro-organism which penetrates the tissue, and selects and impregnates it, sets it vibrating, gives it /another life./
From The Inferno by Edward J. (Edward Joseph Harrington) O'Brien
Hakemah and Binah, whom it impregnates, quantitatively equal, 763-u.
From Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry by Albert Pike
“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
So in January 2022, when veterinary scans showed 25% of his impregnated ewes were no longer carrying lambs, he began to investigate.
From BBC ● May 10, 2025
The maggots arrived at her doctor’s office impregnated in a gauze pad.
From Slate ● Feb. 25, 2024
In that suit, a couple — also represented by Wolf — claims that they wanted a male embryo but instead their gestational carrier was impregnated with a female embryo, according to City News Service.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 1, 2023
When these bedbugs were experimentally placed in cloth impregnated with DDT, they lived for as long as a month; they proceeded to lay their eggs; and the resulting young grew and thrived.
From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson
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
In April, a jury awarded over $8 million in a civil lawsuit to families in Colorado who had been impacted by a fertility doctor impregnating dozens of people with his own sperm.
From Salon ● May 22, 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
Impregnā′tion, the act of impregnating: that with which anything is impregnated.
From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 2 of 4: E-M) by Various
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.
