impregnate
impregnate Lexical Profile
impregnate Game Scores & Validity
• verb
To make a female person or animal pregnant, or to fertilize an ovum.
"In agricultural breeding programs, technicians often artificially impregnate livestock to improve genetic traits."
To soak, saturate, or permeate a material thoroughly with another substance.
"Manufacturers impregnate the wooden railway ties with creosote to prevent rot and insect damage."
To imbue or fill a person's mind, work, or atmosphere with a particular feeling, idea, or moral quality.
"The author managed to impregnate every chapter of the novel with a quiet sense of optimism."
• adjective
Pregnant, fertilized, or thoroughly saturated and permeated with a substance or quality (now chiefly literary or archaic).
"The ancient tapestries were still impregnate with the smoky scent of centuries of hearth fires."
Word Nuance & Usage
As a verb, 'impregnate' is pronounced /ɪmˈprɛɡneɪt/, whereas the rarer, literary adjective form is pronounced /ɪmˈprɛɡnət/. Additionally, 'impregnable' almost always means 'unable to be captured or broken into' (from a different French root), though it can technically also mean 'capable of being impregnated.'
• Nearby Words
Word Origin & Etymology
Borrowed in the late 15th century (originally as an adjective) from Late Latin impregnatus, the past participle of impregnare ('to make pregnant'), formed from the prefix in- ('into') and praegnas ('pregnant').