impregnation Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun material with which something is impregnated
    • the impregnation, whatever it was, had turned the rock blue
  2. noun the process of totally saturating something with a substance
    saturation.
    • the impregnation of wood with preservative
    • the saturation of cotton with ether
  3. noun creation by the physical union of male and female gametes; of sperm and ova in an animal or pollen and ovule in a plant
    fecundation; fertilisation; fertilization.

WordNet

Im`preg*na"tion noun
Etymology
Cf. F. imprégnation, LL. impraegnatio.
Definitions
  1. The act of impregnating or the state of being impregnated; fecundation.
  2. (Biol.) The fusion of a female germ cell (ovum) with a male germ cell (in animals, a spermatozoön) to form a single new cell endowed with the power of developing into a new individual; fertilization; fecundation. ✍ In the broadest biological sense, impregnation, or sexual generation, consists simply in the coalescence of two similar masses of protoplasmic matter, either derived from different parts of the same organism or from two distinct organisms. From the single mass, which results from the fusion, or coalescence, of these two masses, a new organism develops.
  3. That with which anything is impregnated. Derham.
  4. Intimate mixture; influsion; saturation.
  5. (Mining) An ore deposit, with indefinite boundaries, consisting of rock impregnated with ore. Raymond.

Webster 1913