impervious
adjective
Did you know?
Finding your way through some words’ etymologies can lead to surprising discoveries of origins that seemingly have little to do with their modern-day meanings. Impervious, which entered English in the early 1600s, is not one of those words—its history is entirely straightforward. The Latin ancestor of impervious is impervius, which adds the prefix im-, meaning “not,” to pervius, meaning “passable or penetrable.” Pervius in turn comes from per, meaning “through,” and via, meaning “way.” Impervious, it follows, describes things that don’t allow a way through something, whether literally (as in “asphalt, concrete, and other surfaces that are impervious to rain”) or figuratively (as in “impervious to criticism/pressure”). The opposite of impervious, pervious, entered English at around the same time, but it is much less common.
Examples of impervious in a Sentence
Jean Stafford, Children Are Bored on Sunday, (1945) 1953
… the trunk … is encased in so hard a bark, as to be almost impervious to a bullet …
—Herman Melville, Omoo, 1847
… Berlin struck me, above all, as impervious to any political reactions whatever …
—Stephen Spender, New York Times Magazine, 30 Oct.1977
the material for this coat is supposed to be impervious to rain
the rain forest is impervious to all but the most dedicated explorers
Marshall Shepherd, Forbes.com, 28 Apr. 2025
That includes the Harambee neighborhood, which has a lack of trees and lots of impervious surfaces, Goray said.
—Madeline Heim, USA Today, 23 Apr. 2025
But this leads to more impervious surfaces like roads and rooftops, sometimes contributing to problems with flooding and water quality.
—David Faris, MSNBC Newsweek, 11 Apr. 2025
In general, native bee species are declining—and that is a result of habitat loss, use of pesticides, more rural areas becoming urbanized, more impervious surfaces, and the like.
—Meghan Bartels, Scientific American, 4 Apr. 2025
See All Example Sentences for impervious
Cite this Entry
“Impervious.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/impervious. Accessed 17 May. 2025.
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impervious
adjective
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impervious
adjective
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