meato-, meat-, mea-

The ability of diffusing throughout or filtering through something: Permeance is the potential of a fluid, a substance, or energy to penetrate and pass through material.

Referring to something passing through or into a given semipermeable membrane or polymer: A permeant membrane can be penetrable, dispersible, or penetrable.

1. To enter something and to spread or to flow throughout it, so that every part or aspect of it is affected: At the beach, the children permeated the sand with lots of water.
2. To pass through or to cause to pass through by osmosis or diffusion: In Alice's science class, Mr. Smart explained that liquids or gases can pass through or permeate a very thin and porous membrane.
3. To pass through the smallest openings in a porous substance or membrane, or to make something such as a liquid pass through the substance or membrane: When Janet was making coffee, the boiling water permeated the filter containing the coffee, and dripped down into the coffee pot.

When gas, liquid, or an odor permeates something, it spreads into and through every part of it.

If an attitude or feeling permeates someone, its influence can be clearly felt or seen.

1. The motion of a liquid through a porous or permeable solid: In the science class, Sally watched the permeation of the water in the filter flowing through into the pot.
2. In medicine, the circulation of something, particularly something that is malignant: The elderly Mrs. Black was informed that she had cancer and that the permeation of cancerous cells had already begun and were detected in her blood vessels.