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Breakthrough vs Penetrate - What's the difference?

breakthrough | penetrate |

As an adjective breakthrough

is characterized by major progress or overcoming some obstacle.

As a noun breakthrough

is an advance through and past enemy lines.

As a verb penetrate is

to enter into; to make way into the interior of; to pierce.

breakthrough

English

Alternative forms

* breakthru

Adjective

(-)
  • Characterized by major progress or overcoming some obstacle.
    • a breakthrough technological advance

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (military) An advance through and past enemy lines.
  • Any major progress; such as a great innovation or discovery that overcomes a significant obstacle.
    • .
  • (sports) The penetration of the opposition defence
  • * {{quote-news
    • , year=2011 , date=September 29 , author=Jon Smith , title=Tottenham 3 - 1 Shamrock Rovers , work=BBC Sport citation , page= , passage=But with the lively Dos Santos pulling the strings behind strikers Pavlyuchenko and Defoe, Spurs controlled the first half without finding the breakthrough their dominance deserved.}}

    Derived terms

    * breakthrough pain

    penetrate

    English

    (Penetration)

    Verb

    (penetrat)
  • To enter into; to make way into the interior of; to pierce.
    • Light penetrates darkness.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1879, title=The Telephone, the Microphone and the Phonograph
    • , author=Th Du Moncel, page=166, publisher=Harper , passage=He takes the prepared charcoal used by artists, brings it to a white heat, and suddenly plunges it in a bath of mercury, of which the globules instantly penetrate the pores of charcoal, and may be said to metallize it.}}
  • (figuratively) To achieve understanding of, despite some obstacle; to comprehend; to understand.
    • I could not penetrate Burke's opaque rhetoric.
  • * Ray
    • things which here were too subtile for us to penetrate
  • To affect profoundly through the senses or feelings; to move deeply.
    • to penetrate one's heart with pity
  • * M. Arnold
    • The translator of Homer should penetrate himself with a sense of the plainness and directness of Homer's style.
    (Shakespeare)
  • To infiltrate an enemy to gather intelligence.
  • To insert the penis into an opening, such as a vagina or anus. (rfex)

    • Derived terms

    * penetration * penetrable

    External links

    * * * ----