Refine this word faster
Impregnable
Definitions
- 1 Of a fortress or other fortified place: able to withstand all attacks; impenetrable, inconquerable, unvanquishable.
"Unerringly impelling this dead, impregnable, uninjurable wall, and this most buoyant thing within; there swims behind it all a mass of tremendous life, only to be adequately estimated as piled wood is—by the cord; and all obedient to one volition, as the smallest insect."
- 2 Capable of being impregnated; impregnatable.
"The reproductive strategies of troop members, especially those of impregnable females, are suggested to influence patterns of range use."
- 3 Too strong to be defeated or overcome; invincible. figuratively
"[A]s for the Friendſhip of the World; […] he may at laſt be no more able to get into the other's Heart, than he is to thruſt his Hand into a Pillar of Braſs. The Man's Affection, amidſt all theſe Kindneſſes done him, remaining wholly unconcerned, and impregnable; juſt like a Rock, which being plied continually by the Waves, ſtill throws them back again into the Boſom of the Sea that ſent them, but is not at all moved by any of them."
- 1 incapable of being overcome, challenged or refuted wordnet
- 2 capable of conceiving wordnet
- 3 immune to attack; incapable of being tampered with wordnet
Etymology
From Late Middle English imprenable, impregnable (“impossible to capture, impregnable”), from Old French imprenable (modern French imprenable (“impregnable”)), from im- (a variant of in- (prefix meaning ‘not’) + prenable (“(military) of a building, position, etc.: takable”) (from prendre (“to take”) + -able (suffix meaning ‘creating an effect or influence’)). Prendre is derived from Latin prēndere, present active infinitive of prēndō, a variant of prehendō (“to catch, lay hold of; to grasp; to grab, snatch; to seize, take”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gʰed- (“to find; to hold; to seize, take”). The intrusive g in the English word was modelled after words like deign and reign.
PIE word *h₁én From impregnate (verb) + -able (suffix meaning ‘able or fit to be done’ forming adjectives). Impregnate is either derived from impregnate (“pregnant”, adjective), or from its etymon Medieval Latin or Late Latin impraegnātus (“made pregnant”), past participle of impraegnō (“to make pregnant”), from Latin im- (a variant of in- (prefix meaning ‘in, inside, within’)) + praegnāre (“pregnant”) (from praegnāns, a variant of praegnās (“pregnant”), from prae- (prefix meaning ‘before; in front’) + *gnāscor (archaic), nāscor (“to be born; to grow, spring forth; to arise, proceed”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ǵenh₁- (“to beget; to give birth; to produce”)).
See also for "impregnable"
Next best steps
Mini challenge
Unscramble this word: impregnable