Porous

//ˈpɔːɹəs// adj

adj ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Full of tiny pores that allow fluids or gasses to pass through.

    "Sponges are porous so they can filter water while trapping food."

  2. 2
    With many gaps or loopholes. figuratively

    "However, Wolves ^([sic]) porous defence opened up again to gift Sunderland a foothold in the game - Sessegnon sweeping in a Zenden corner that was inexplicably allowed to bounce in the six-yard box."

Adjective
  1. 1
    full of pores or vessels or holes wordnet
  2. 2
    allowing passage in and out wordnet
  3. 3
    able to absorb fluids wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
permeableporosecribriformexcretoryexudativefine

Example

More examples

"The countries have competing claims to villages and towns along the porous, undefined border."

Etymology

From Old French poros, from Latin porus (“an opening”). By surface analysis, pore + -ous.

Related phrases

porous portal

More for "porous"

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.