impenetrable

See also: impénétrable

Contents

EnglishEdit

EtymologyEdit

From Middle French impenetrable, from Latin impenetrabilis.

AdjectiveEdit

impenetrable (not comparable)

1. Not penetrable.

   The fortress is impenetrable, so it cannot be taken.

   • 2012 May 28, John Branch, “Snow Fall : The Avalanche at Tunnel Creek”, in New York Time^[1]:

     The avalanche spread and stopped, locking everything it carried into an icy cocoon. It was now a jagged, virtually impenetrable pile of ice, longer than a football field and nearly as wide.

2. (figuratively) Incomprehensible; inscrutable.

   Business jargon makes this document impenetrable, I can't understand it.

AntonymsEdit

• penetrable

TranslationsEdit

not penetrable

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 不能通过的, 不能渗透的

• Czech: neproniknutelný m, nedobytný
• Dutch: ondoordringbaar (nl)
• Finnish: läpitunkematon
• French: impénétrable (fr)
• German: undurchlässig
• Greek: αδιαπέραστος (el) m (adiapérastos)

• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: ugjennomtrengelig

  Nynorsk: ugjennomtrengeleg, ugjennomtrengjeleg

• Romanian: impenetrabil (ro), de nepătruns, de nestrăpuns
• Russian: (impermeable) непроница́емый (ru) (nepronicájemyj), непроходи́мый (ru) (neproxodímyj)
• Spanish: impenetrable
• Ukrainian: непроникний (nepronyknyj)

incomprehensible; inscrutable

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 难以理解的, 费解的

• Czech: nesrozumitelný

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SpanishEdit

EtymologyEdit

From Latin impenetrabilis.

AdjectiveEdit

impenetrable (plural impenetrables)

1. impenetrable
   • 1867, Cesare Cantù, Historia universal, 8, page 118:

     como una muralla impenetrable