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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
permeable
adjective
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ a permeable membrane
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ A membrane selectively permeable to gases separates the buffer from the blood sample.
▪ Besides, the boundaries of the leprosarium were permeable, and surveillance at the federal level was almost nonexistent.
▪ If the soil is permeable enough radon can diffuse out before it decays.
▪ Layers of rock that are porous and permeable enough to store water and let it flow through them easily are called aquifers.
▪ Such rocks are said to be permeable; sandstones and gravels are good examples of permeable rocks.
▪ The picture of the permeable family may lead one to think Elkind wishes for the return of the old model.
▪ The proximal tubule is freely permeable to water, and water freely follows the absorbed solutes.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Permeable

Permeable \Per"me*a*ble\, a. [L. permeabilis: cf. F. perm['e]able. See Permeate.] Capable of being permeated, or passed through; yielding passage; passable; penetrable; -- used especially of substances which allow the passage of fluids; as, wood is permeable to oil; glass is permeable to light.
--I. Taylor.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
permeable

early 15c., from Late Latin permeabilis "that can be passed through, passable," from Latin permeare "to pass through, go over," from per- "through" (see per) + meare "to pass," from PIE root *mei- (1) "to change" (see mutable). Related: Permeably.

Wiktionary
permeable

a. Of or relating to substance, substrate, membrane or material that absorbs or allows the passage of fluids.

WordNet
permeable

adj. allowing (especially liquids) to pass or diffuse through; "permeable membranes"; "rock that is permeable by water" [ant: impermeable]

Usage examples of "permeable".

Where they differ is in the unique properties of their cell membranes, for the nerve cell membrane is excitable - which means that in response to a signal, such as a small local fluctuation in ion concentration across the membrane, it can rapidly become permeable to the ions outside it.

These channels make the membrane permeable to ions or molecules, which can then enter the cell and act as signals for the initiation of the biochemical cascades which ultimately lead, in ways that I shall describe in the next chapter, to the synthesis of new synaptic membrane components and hence to synaptic remodeling.

Why is the Spin barrier permeable to human artifacts like satellites, but not to meteors or even Brownlee particles?

I suspect the artificial skin is a permeable membrane like those developed by the Navy.

The copper-rich, heavily mineralized surface was permeable enough to allow water to penetrate, but not to accumulate.

Mirror was permeable only to objects of less than about a hundred kilograms.

In Bosnia, of course, some portions of the arms embargo were deliberately allowed to be permeable and the U.

Water began to pool as the thin layer of permeable soil above the level of the subterranean permafrost became saturated.

How the kitten purred when from coarse burlap, onion sacks, and other permeable material Eddi Amsel sewed shirtlike undergarments.

Unlike any other atmosphere, this was: an invisible but increasingly dense accumulation of dark-matter talents and plasmatic talents and baryonic talents made transparent and permeable, each talent carefully aligned with its neighbors, cooperating with its neighbors, set together like the elaborate pieces of some grand, secret puzzle.

Elite skin had to be somewhat permeable, and a heavy douse of fadeaway would put one down for several minutes while the Elite immune system dealt with the drug.

Additional tubules, with active transport capacity, also end in a permeable membrane at the surface of your skin.

He was burning with metabolic heat, from exertion and stress and pain, even with his suit as permeable as it could get.

How the kitten purred when from coarse burlap, onion sacks, and other permeable material Eddi Amsel sewed shirtlike undergarments.

Pushing a small lever sufficed, as Khrest had explained some weeks ago, to change the structure of the energy screen, so as to render it permeable for ultrashort radio waves.