impenetrable
adjectivenounattested in dialogue
- //ɪmˈpɛnətɹəbəl//
- //ɪmˈpɛnɪtɹəbəl//
Not penetrable.
adjective
- 1
Not penetrable.
The fortress is impenetrable, so it cannot be taken.
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
Opaque; obscure; not translucent or transparent.
When night falls, she cloaks the world in impenetrable darkness.
- 3
figurativeIncomprehensible; fathomless; inscrutable.
Business jargon makes this document impenetrable—I can’t understand it.
Etymology
From Middle English inpenetrabel, inpenetrabyle, from Middle French impenetrable or directly from its etymon, Latin impenetrābilis. By surface analysis, im- + penetrable.
noun
- 1
A person not openly given to friendship.
I should lose the reputation that I am gradually acquiring among our impenetrables here, were I to confess the excitement which I felt at the idea of entering his house—the house of that great general under whose command you made your first charge.
Forms
- plural
- impenetrables