impenetrable

• (misspelling) inpenetrable

From Middle English inpenetrabel, inpenetrabyle, from Middle French impenetrable or directly from its etymon, Latin impenetrābilis.^[1]

• IPA^(key): /ɪmˈpɛnətɹəbəl/, /ɪmˈpɛnɪtɹəbəl/

  • Audio (Southern England):

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  • Audio (UK):

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• Hyphenation: im‧pen‧e‧tra‧ble

impenetrable (not comparable)

1. Not penetrable.

   Synonyms: impermeable, impregnable

   Antonyms: penetrable, permeable, pregnable

   The fortress is impenetrable, so it cannot be taken.

   • 2012, John Branch, “Snow fall: The avalanche at Tunnel Creek”, in The New York Times‎, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2024-06-11:

     The avalanche spread and stopped, locking everything it carried into an icy cocoon. It was now a jagged, virtually impenetrable pile of ice, longer than a football field and nearly as wide.

2. Opaque; obscure; not translucent or transparent.

   When night falls, she cloaks the world in impenetrable darkness.

3. (figuratively) Incomprehensible; fathomless; inscrutable.

   Synonyms: unfathomable; see also Thesaurus:incomprehensible

   Antonyms: fathomable; see also Thesaurus:comprehensible

   Business jargon makes this document impenetrable—I can’t understand it.

impenetrable (plural impenetrables)

1. A person not openly given to friendship. (clarification of this definition is needed)
   • 1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “Chapter XXVI. Lady Marchmont to Sir Jasper Meredith.”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. , volume I, London: Henry Colburn, , →OCLC, page 236:

     I should lose the reputation that I am gradually acquiring among our impenetrables here, were I to confess the excitement which I felt at the idea of entering his house—the house of that great general under whose command you made your first charge.

From Latin impenetrābilis.

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic)
• IPA^(key): (Valencia)

impenetrable m or f (masculine and feminine plural impenetrables)

1. impenetrable

• “impenetrable” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “impenetrable”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2024
• “impenetrable” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “impenetrable” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

From Latin impenetrābilis.

• IPA^(key): /impeneˈtɾable/
• Rhymes: -able
• Syllabification: im‧pe‧ne‧tra‧ble

impenetrable m or f (masculine and feminine plural impenetrables)

1. impenetrable
   • 1867, Cesare Cantù, Historia universal, 8, page 118:

     como una muralla impenetrable

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

• “impenetrable”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014