penetrate

Definitions

From Latin penetrare 'to put or pass within' (related to penitus 'deep inside'). To penetrate is to push into and through — a needle into skin, light through fog, a spy into an organization. The mental sense ('penetrate a mystery') comes from the same picture of going past the surface to the inside.

Why It Means This

The single image behind every sense is 'going past the surface and into.' A bullet penetrates a wall; light penetrates fog; a brand penetrates a market; and a sharp mind penetrates a mystery — moving from outside to inside in each case. Note this is the 'into/through' branch of the pen- family, not the 'almost' branch of peninsula.

Common Collocations

• 1.penetrate the market打入市场
• 2.penetrate deeply深入渗透
• 3.penetrate the skin刺穿皮肤
• 4.penetrate enemy lines突破敌线

Example Sentences

• 1.

  The bullet penetrated the thick steel plate.

• 2.

  Sunlight could barely penetrate the dense forest canopy.

• 3.

  The company struggled to penetrate the Asian market.

• 4.

  It took her a while to penetrate the meaning of the poem.

Easily Confused

penetrate vs pierce — Both go into a surface, but pierce stresses making a hole at one sharp point (pierce your ears, a piercing scream). Penetrate stresses passing all the way into or through a body or area (penetrate the forest, penetrate a market). Pierce = puncture; penetrate = pass inside.