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impervious

UK/ɪmˈpɜːvi.əs/US/ɪmˈpɝ.vi.əs/
adjectiveC1Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #9,953 of 15,258neutral

Impervious means letting nothing through, or unaffected by argument. Impervious to water, impervious to criticism, an impervious layer.

It takes to. The physical sense is technical and used of membranes and rock. The human sense is nearly always a criticism: being impervious to argument means nothing anybody says can get in, which is not usually a compliment.

Definitions of impervious

  1. 1adjectiveimperviousLetting nothing through, or unaffected by argument.C1

    “The roof is covered with a material that is impervious to water.”

impervious is a quality.

Where it comes from

Latin impervius, in-, not, plus pervius, allowing passage — per, through, plus via, a way.

  1. Latin

    impervius — that cannot be passed through

  2. English, today

    impervious

Built from

  • in- · Latin — not
  • pervius · Latin — letting things through

From Latin impervius (“that cannot be passed through”), from in- (“not”) + pervius (“letting things through”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

impervious in the wild

  • There are different types of hardpan, all sharing the general characteristic of being a distinct soil layer that is largely impervious to water.

    Hardpan

  • Soils compacted by urban development are also highly impervious.

    Impervious surface

  • During this phase, water pollution entering storm drains in areas with high proportions of impervious surfaces is typically more concentrated compared to the remainder of the storm.

    First flush

  • The foramen cecum varies in size in different subjects, and is frequently impervious; when open, it transmits the emissary vein from the nose to the superior sagittal sinus.

    Foramen cecum (frontal bone)

  • Typically used for cleaning impervious surfaces, sponges are especially good at absorbing water and water-based solutions.

    Sponge (tool)

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.