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penetrable

Something can be called penetrable if substances can pass through it. A coffee filter is penetrable, for example, because it allows water to drip through it.

Your curtains are penetrable if they let sunlight peek through, and a country's borders are considered penetrable if they allow people to pass through them unnoticed by guards or customs officials. In basketball, having a penetrable defense is bad news — it means it allows the opposition's players to get right up to the basket, where they can easily shoot. Sometimes penetrable means "understandable," as in a penetrable poem or penetrable song lyrics.

Definitions of penetrable
  1. adjective
    admitting of penetration or passage into or through
    “a penetrable wall”
    penetrable defenses”
    see moresee less
    antonyms:
    impenetrable
    not admitting of penetration or passage into or through
    dense, thick
    hard to pass through because of dense growth
  2. adjective
    capable of being penetrated
    penetrable defenses”
    synonyms:
    vulnerable
    susceptible to attack
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