permeable
adjective
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“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
David Ehrlich, IndieWire, 16 May 2025
Park district lands grant for garden lot permeable pavers
Naperville Park District will use a $785,308 grant to install a permeable paver parking lot at the Ron Ory Community Garden Plots.
—Michelle Mullins, Chicago Tribune, 24 Apr. 2025
But the burgeoning southern Tuscan seaside scene is more open and permeable.
—Lee Marshall, Travel + Leisure, 15 Apr. 2025
The tech industry’s bubble, then, remains permeable.
—Matteo Wong, The Atlantic, 13 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for permeable
Cite this Entry
“Permeable.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/permeable. Accessed 6 Jun. 2025.
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permeable
adjective
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permeable
adjective
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