permeate

UK/ˈpɜːmiˌeɪt/US/ˈpɝmiˌeɪ̯t/

verbC1Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #14,234 of 15,258leans written

Other forms: permeated, permeates, permeating

To permeate is to spread right through every part of something. Permeate the fabric, permeated by distrust, the smell permeates everything.

It is used of smells, liquids and attitudes alike, and the thoroughness is the point, since something that permeates has reached everywhere. In science a permeable material is one that lets things through.

Definitions of permeate

1verbpermeateTo spread right through every part of something.C1
“A feeling of fear permeated the whole village after the attacks.”

permeate is a spreading.

Where it comes from

Latin permeare means to pass through, from per plus meare, to go.

Latin
permeātus
English, today
permeate

Built from

permeō · Latin — to pass through

1656; Latin permeātus, perfect passive participle of permeō (“to pass through”), see -ate and -ate.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

permeate in the wild

In this debut novel, the themes that would come to permeate the author's work can already be seen, albeit in an embryonic form.
The Country of Carnival
"Fall Dog Bombs the Moon" is based on short melodic motifs, the kind that seemed to permeate his previous album, Heathen.
Fall Dog Bombs the Moon
Molecules with a polar surface area of greater than 140 angstroms squared tend to be poor at permeating cell membranes.
Polar surface area
Drugs with a lower TPSA tend to permeate the BBB more easily, allowing them to reach the brain and exert their therapeutic effects.
Polar surface area
Amorphous polymers exhibit ESC because of their loose structure which makes it easier for the fluid to permeate into the polymer.
Environmental stress cracking

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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.

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