3 definitions found

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

penetration

noun

1: an attack that penetrates into enemy territory [syn: {incursion}]

2: clear or deep perception of a situation [syn: {insight}]

3: the act of entering into or through something; "the penetration of upper management by women"

4: the ability to make way into or through something; "the greater penetration of the new projectiles will result in greater injuries"

5: the depth to which something penetrates (especially the depth reached by a projectile that hits a target)

6: the act (by a man) of inserting his penis into the vagina of a woman

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:

Penetration \Pen"e*tra'tion\, noun [L. penetratio: cf. F. p['e]n['e]tration.]

1. The act or process of penetrating, piercing, or entering; also, the act of mentally penetrating into, or comprehending, anything difficult.

And to each in ward part, With gentle penetration, though unseen, Shoots invisible virtue even to the deep. --Milton.

A penetration into the difficulties of algebra. --Watts.

2. Acuteness; insight; sharp discoverment; sagacity; as, a person of singular penetration. --Walpole.

Syn: Discernment; sagacity; acuteness; sharpness; discrimination. See {Discernment}, and {Sagacity}.

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

127 Moby Thesaurus words for "penetration": access, acuity, acumen, acupunctuation, acupuncture, acuteness, admission, apperception, astuteness, bore, boring, broach, cleverness, cogency, critical discernment, decoction, diffusion, discernment, discrimination, drill hole, embedment, empiercement, entrance, entree, entry, farseeingness, farsightedness, fixing, flair, foresight, foresightedness, goring, graft, grafting, imbuement, impaction, impactment, impalement, implantation, import, importation, importing, impregnation, incision, incisiveness, income, incoming, infiltration, infixion, infusion, ingoing, ingress, ingression, injection, inoculation, input, inroad, insertion, insight, insinuation, instillation, instillment, intake, intelligence, interjection, interpenetration, interpolation, introduction, introgression, intromission, intrusion, judgment, keenness, lancing, leakage, longheadedness, longsightedness, marination, overrunning, overspreading, overswarming, penetrating, perception, perceptiveness, percipience, percolation, perforation, perfusion, permeation, perspicaciousness, perspicacity, perspicuity, perspicuousness, pervasion, piercing, pricking, providence, punching, puncture, puncturing, quick-wittedness, reception, sagaciousness, sagacity, saturation, seepage, sensibility, sensitivity, sentience, shrewdness, skewering, soaking, steeping, suffusion, terebration, tessellation, transfixation, transfixion, transforation, transfusion, transplant, transplantation, trenchancy, trepanning, trephining, understanding, wit

  Definitions retrieved from local copies of the freely distributed DICT client/server software and databases. Click here for database copyright information.