It's Merriam-Webster's word of the day for December 6th.

Today's word is

today's word is permeable, spelled P-E-R-M-A-N-B-G-E-N-E-L-E-E-E-E-L-E-E-E-E-E-L-E.

Permeable is an adjective. It's a synonym of the word penetrable, and it's used especially to describe things that have

pours or openings that permit liquids or gases to pass through.

Here's the word used in a sentence from CNN by Laura Patterson.

The idea is to enable cities to soak up and retain excess water

with designs focused on nature, including gardens, green roofs, wetlands, and permeable

sidewalks, allowing water to both sink into the ground and flow outwards.

Ben Goldfarb in his book, Crossing's, How Road Ecology is

shaping the future of our planet, writes,

Our landscapes are changing. They're becoming less permeable to wildlife at the precise moment animals need to move most.

He's describing the effects of highway infrastructure and at the same time clearly demonstrating the meaning of the word

permeable, a word that traces back to a combination of the prefix pair, P-E-R, meaning through, and the Latin verb meare meaning to go or to pass.

Accordingly, a permeable landscape such as one where humans have constructed wildlife overpasses is one that allows animals to pass and spread through unimpeded. Permeables relative, the verb permeate, meaning to spread or diffuse through, is another commonly used meare descendant.

But other relations haven't managed to permeate the language quite so widely,

such as meetus meaning a natural body passage,

conjure meaning a formal permission to depart,

and irremeable, meaning offering no possibility of return.

With your word of the day, I'm Peter Sokoloski.

Visit Merriam Webster.com today,

for definitions, word play, and trending word lookups.

...