impervious

Meanings

1. Not letting liquid, air or light pass through.
2. Not affected or influenced by something, such as criticism, danger or pain.

Example sentences

• "The tent fabric is impervious to rain."

  Level B2, Meaning 1

• "A good sealant makes the floor impervious to water."

  Level C1, Meaning 1

• "Roads and rooftops are impervious surfaces, so rainwater runs off them."

  Level C1, Meaning 1

• "She seemed impervious to criticism and kept working."

  Level C1, Meaning 2

• "He was impervious to the cold and walked to school in a thin jacket."

  Level B2, Meaning 2

• "Both sides were impervious to every argument."

  Level C1, Meaning 2

Synonyms and antonyms

Look-alikes and common mistakes

• imperious : Imperious means bossy and commanding, as in an imperious tone. It looks like impervious but means something else.
• pervious : Pervious means letting liquid or light through. It is the opposite of impervious and is rare.
• impermeable : Impermeable is the technical word for a material that liquid cannot pass through. It is not used for people.
• immune : Immune means protected from a disease or a harm. Impervious to criticism means it does not affect you at all.

Word family and forms

Forms: more impervious, most impervious

Word partners

Words and phrases that often go with "impervious".

• impervious to water
• impervious to criticism
• impervious to pain
• impervious to reason
• impervious to rain
• impervious to the cold
• impervious surface
• impervious to change

Origin

Impervious comes from the Latin word impervius, which means that cannot be passed through. The Latin word joins in, meaning not, with pervius, meaning letting things through. English has used impervious since the 1600s. Its opposite, pervious, comes from the same Latin root.

Checked against: Wiktionary, the free dictionary, Dictionary.com.

Usage notes

Usually followed by "to," as in "impervious to pain" or "impervious to water".

How to remember it

Break it into im, which means not, and pervious, which means letting things through. Impervious means not letting things through, like a raincoat that keeps the water out.

Test yourself

Learn next at C1

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