Penetrating

How to spell penetrating

11 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce penetrating

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does penetrating mean?

1. adjectiveSharp and intense enough to pass through or reach deeply, whether physically or in the case of a look, sound, or mind.
2. verbMaking one's way into or through something, in the continuous form of the verb to penetrate.

Penetrating in a sentence

• adjective

  The interviewer asked a few penetrating questions about the missing funds.

• verb

  The rain was penetrating the old roof faster than they could patch it.

• adjective

  A penetrating wind cut across the open platform while we waited for the train.

• verb

  The brand spent years penetrating the overseas market before turning a profit.

Where does penetrating come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin verb penetrare, which meant 'to enter into', 'to pass through', or 'to pierce'. That verb was related to penitus, meaning 'deep within' or 'inmost', and to the noun penus, a term for the innermost store of a household, so the idea of reaching the deep inner part is built into the root from the very start. English took up the verb penetrate in the early 1500s, and the present participle penetrating soon developed its own life as an adjective, first for things that physically pierce or pass through, and then figuratively for a sharp mind or a searching, probing look. The spelling keeps the full Latin stem intact: pen-e-tr-ate, with that unstressed middle 'e' that writers sometimes drop. A useful memory hook is that the same penitus 'deep within' sense survives in the modest word penetralia, the innermost rooms of a building. Knowing the word is built from penetrate plus -ing keeps both the e's and the single t in place.

How the word is built

• penetr- (from Latin penetrare: to enter into, pierce)
• -ate (verb-forming)
• -ing (participle/adjective suffix)