Synonyms for impenetrable
- adjective
Synonyms by meaning
Adjective
1. Incomprehensible — incomprehensible; fathomless; inscrutable
incomprehensible, dense, inscrutable, thick, unfathomable, mysterious, unknowable, solid, unintelligible, hard, compact, ungraspable, undiscoverable, incognizable, incognisable UK, obscure, inexplicable
2. Impermeable — not penetrable
impermeable, impregnable, impervious, impassable, undefeatable
Other
heavy, fast, unpierceable, unimpenetrable dated
Definitions
- adj. 1
Not penetrable.
The fortress is impenetrable, so it cannot be taken.
- adj. 2
Incomprehensible; fathomless; inscrutable.
Business jargon makes this document impenetrable—I can’t understand it.
Related words
- Word family
- impenetrableness
- Other spellings
- inpenetrable
Example sentences
- dense Not a soul was to be seen because of a dense fog.
- incomprehensible This language is incomprehensible to me when spoken.
- unfathomable It is just unfathomable to even think about.
- inscrutable She looked at him with an inscrutable expression.
- impregnable Islam will remain an impregnable fortress against wokeism.
- impermeable He glazed his pottery to make it impermeable to water.
Popularity over time
| Word | 1850 → 2019 | Trend |
|---|---|---|
| impenetrable | rising | |
| dense | steady | |
| incomprehensible | rising | |
| unfathomable | rising | |
| inscrutable | rising | |
| impregnable | steady |
Use in printed books, per decade from 1850 to 2019.
By length
- 4 letters
- hard1, fast1
- 5 letters
- heavy2, solid2, thick1, dense1
- 7 letters
- compact2, obscure2
- 10 letters
- mysterious4, impervious4, unknowable4, impassable4
- 11 letters
- inscrutable4, impregnable4, impermeable, ungraspable
- 12 letters
- inexplicable5, unfathomable5, undefeatable, incognizable, incognisable, unpierceable
- 14 letters
- unintelligible6, undiscoverable, unimpenetrable
The small number after each word is its number of syllables (heavy2 = 2 syllables).
In other languages
- Français
- impénétrable
- Italiano
- impenetrabile
- Español
- impenetrable