Other forms: penetrated, penetrating, penetrates
To penetrate is to force a way through or into something. Penetrate the wall, water penetrated the roof, penetrate the market.
In building, penetrating damp is water coming through a wall from outside, against rising damp from below. In business, to penetrate a market is to establish a presence in it. It also means to understand something difficult: penetrate the argument, a penetrating question. Note penetration, and that penetrate has a sexual sense that makes the word worth using carefully in ordinary description.
1verbpenetrateTo force a way through or into something.
“The nail penetrated the tyre, and it went flat within minutes.”
synonyms: pierce, get through
2verbunderstandTo understand something difficult.
“Scientists are still trying to penetrate the mysteries of the human brain.”
penetrate is a going through.
Also accepted in games: pierce
Latin penetrare comes from penitus, inward, related to penus, the inner store of a house. Penetrating something is getting into its innermost part, which is a domestic image rather than a violent one.
Proto-Indo-European
*pen-
Latin
penētrātus
English, today
penetrate
Built from
From Latin penētrātus, perfect passive participle of penētrō (“to put, set, or place within, enter, pierce, penetrate”) (see -ate), from penes (“within, with”) by analogy to intrō (“to go in, enter”). Compare French pénétrer.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA