What does porous mean?

Definitions for porous
ˈpɔr əs, ˈpoʊr-por·ous

This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word porous.

Princeton's WordNet

  1. porousadjective

    able to absorb fluids

    "the partly porous walls of our digestive system"; "compacting the soil to make it less porous"

  2. porous, poriferousadjective

    full of pores or vessels or holes

  3. holey, porousadjective

    allowing passage in and out

    "our unfenced and largely unpoliced border inevitably has been very porous"

Wiktionary

  1. porousadjective

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

  2. porousadjective

    (Of legislation) full of loopholes

  3. porousadjective

    With many gaps.

Samuel Johnson's Dictionary

  1. Porousadjective

    Having small spiracles or passages.

    Etymology: poreux, Fr. from pore.

    The rapid current, which through veins
    Of porous earth with kindly thirst updrawn,
    Rose a fresh fountain, and with many a rill
    Water’d the garden. John Milton, Par. Lost, b. iv.

    Of light the greater part he took, and plac’d
    In the sun’s orb, made porous to receive
    And drink the liquid light; firm to retain
    Her gather’d beams; great palace now of light. John Milton.

Wikipedia

  1. porous

    Porosity or void fraction is a measure of the void (i.e. "empty") spaces in a material, and is a fraction of the volume of voids over the total volume, between 0 and 1, or as a percentage between 0% and 100%. Strictly speaking, some tests measure the "accessible void", the total amount of void space accessible from the surface (cf. closed-cell foam). There are many ways to test porosity in a substance or part, such as industrial CT scanning. The term porosity is used in multiple fields including pharmaceutics, ceramics, metallurgy, materials, manufacturing, petrophysics, hydrology, earth sciences, soil mechanics, and engineering.

ChatGPT

  1. porous

    Porous refers to a material or structure having minute spaces or holes through which liquid or air may pass. It essentially describes something that is permeable to fluids, often due to the presence of microscopic pores or openings.

Webster Dictionary

  1. Porousnoun

    full of pores; having interstices in the skin or in the substance of the body; having spiracles or passages for fluids; permeable by liquids; as, a porous skin; porous wood

  2. Etymology: [Cf. F. poreux. See Pore, n.]

Usage in printed sourcesFrom: 

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Numerology

  1. Chaldean Numerology

    The numerical value of porous in Chaldean Numerology is: 6

  2. Pythagorean Numerology

    The numerical value of porous in Pythagorean Numerology is: 5

Examples of porous in a Sentence

  1. Mwenda Njoka:

    There is a boundary that is being constructed around the Kenya Somali border, it has been porous for a long time because the previous government have not taken serious action. [ But ] in the recent past we have established a border patrol police, a specialist police.

  2. Stephen Mojzsis:

    Jupiter is a very inefficient gatekeeper, its like a porous border [through which] immigrants from the outer solar system would have flooded the inner solar system.

  3. Eric Schmitt:

    Time and again, the Biden administration has refused to take concrete action to quell the worsening border crisis, inviting the cartels and human drug smugglers to take advantage of our porous border, without a border wall, illegal immigrants, coyotes, and bad actors can simply march across our southern border and into the interior. The border wall needs to be built, the funds have been appropriated to continue to build the wall, and yet the Biden Administration outright refuses to do so.

  4. John Joyce:

    China is taking a huge role in pouring these poisons into the United States via the porous southern border. China needs to be held accountable for this, they're utilizing the vehicles, that I'm going to identify as the drug cartels, they're utilizing those to infiltrate into the United States and cause this crisis.

  5. Ken Cuccinelli:

    We face very real security threats today, porous borders and lax immigration enforcement have left us vulnerable not only to terrorist attacks but to increasing levels of crime in our communities. Those already accustomed to flagrantly disregarding our laws do not hesitate to traffic their deadly cocktail of drugs and gang violence into Virginia.

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Translations for porous

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"porous." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2025. Web. 22 Jan. 2025. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/porous>.

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    not transmitting or reflecting light or radiant energy; impenetrable to sight
    A cosmopolitan
    B abrupt
    C opaque
    D noninvasive

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