permeable
adjective
Did you know?
“Our landscapes are changing … they’re becoming less permeable to wildlife at the precise moment animals need to move most,” writes Ben Goldfarb in his book Crossings: How Road Ecology is Shaping the Future of Our Planet. He’s describing the effects of highway infrastructure and at the same time clearly demonstrating the meaning of permeable, a word that traces back to a combination of the prefix per-, meaning “through,” and the Latin verb meare, meaning “to go” or “to pass.” Accordingly, a permeable landscape—such as one where humans have constructed wildlife overpasses—is one that allows animals to pass and spread through unimpeded. Permeable’s relative, the verb permeate (“to spread or diffuse through”) is another commonly used meare descendent, but other relations haven’t managed to permeate the language quite so widely, such as meatus (“a natural body passage”), congé (“a formal permission to depart”), and irremeable (“offering no possibility of return”).
Examples of permeable in a Sentence
Nicole Winfield, Los Angeles Times, 28 Jan. 2026
Mill Street will be reconstructed with trees and permeable pavers to slow runoff.
—Eleanor Nash, Kansas City Star, 26 Jan. 2026
Why Saltwater Is Lethal To Most Frogs Amphibian skin is thin, vascularized and highly permeable.
—Scott Travers, Forbes.com, 22 Jan. 2026
By adjusting a typical polymer synthesis to work in water, the researchers created the gas-permeable polymer polynorbornene, which is harmless to plants but which weakens the cell membranes of a various harmful bacteria.
—New Atlas, 10 Jan. 2026
See All Example Sentences for permeable
Cite this Entry
“Permeable.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/permeable. Accessed 29 Jan. 2026.
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permeable
adjective
Medical Definition
permeable
adjective
