Penetration

How to spell penetration

11 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce penetration

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does penetration mean?

1. nounThe act or process of entering, passing into, or piercing through something.

Penetration in a sentence

• The survey measured the penetration of broadband into rural homes.

• Engineers tested the water penetration of the new roofing material.

Where does penetration come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word descends from the Latin verb penetrare, meaning 'to enter into' or 'to pierce through', which itself was built on penitus, an adverb meaning 'deeply' or 'far within'. The Romans used penetrare for everything from a blade passing through armour to light reaching the depths of a room, and that physical sense of going inward sits at the heart of the English word. English took the noun penetration from French in the late 1500s, borrowing the Latin past-participle stem penetrat- and adding the familiar -ion ending that turns an action into a noun. Over time the meaning widened from literal piercing to figurative depths: a penetrating mind, market penetration, or a security team's penetration of a network. The single n in the middle and the unstressed second syllable are the main spelling traps, since the schwa sound gives no clue to the vowel.

How the word is built

• penetrat- (from Latin penetrare: to enter, pierce)
• -ion (noun-forming suffix)