Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Open to passage or entrance; permeable.
  • adjective Open to arguments, ideas, or change; approachable.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Capable of being penetrated or permeated by something else: affording entrance, admission, or passage; penetrable; permeable.
  • Pervading; permeating.
  • Open; patent; patulous; perforate: applied in anatomy and zoölogy to organs which may be impervious at some time, or under some circumstances.
  • In botany, possessing an opening or passageway.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Admitting passage; capable of being penetrated by another body or substance; permeable.
  • adjective rare Capable of being penetrated, or seen through, by physical or mental vision.
  • adjective obsolete Capable of penetrating or pervading.
  • adjective (Zoöl.) Open; -- used synonymously with perforate, as applied to the nostrils or birds.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Admitting passage; capable of being penetrated by another body or substance; permeable.
  • adjective Accepting of new ideas.
  • adjective Capable of being penetrated, or seen through, by physical or mental vision.
  • adjective obsolete Capable of penetrating or pervading.
  • adjective zoology open; perforate, as applied to the nostrils of birds

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective admitting of passage or entrance

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From Latin pervius : per-, through; see per– + via, way; see wegh- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Latin pervis.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word pervious.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • The windows of my room faced the lattice of a lady living opposite: but the street was narrow, and her blinds pervious to the eye.

    - Lesage, The Adventures of Gil Blas of Santillane, tr. Smollett, bk 9 ch. 6

    October 8, 2008

  • Having a pervy quality.

    December 17, 2008

  • Does impervious thus mean totally innocent?

    December 17, 2008

  • That makes logical sense except that nothing is totally innocent.

    December 17, 2008

  • Not in this age of Internet, anyway.

    December 18, 2008