- enter
- enter 1 Enter, penetrate, pierce, probe are comparable when meaning to make way into something so as to reach or pass through the interior.Enter (see also ENTER 2) is the most comprehensive of these words and the least explicit in its implications. When the word takes a person for its subject, it often means little more than to go in or to go into{
he entered the house
}{came riding out of Asia on the very first horses to enter Africa—G. W. Murray
}but sometimes it also suggests the beginning of a course of study, a career, or a proceeding{enter college
}{enter Parliament
}{there are many who are aghast at the type of world which we are now entering, in which a war could cause obliteration— Vannevar Bush
}When enter takes a thing for its subject, it implies a making way through some medium and especially a dense or resisting medium{the rain could not enter the frozen earth
}{the bullet entered the body near the heart
}{such an idea never entered his mind
}Penetrate (see also PERMEATE) carries a far stronger implication than enter of an impelling force or of a compelling power that makes for entrance{the salt rain . . . penetrates the thickest coat— Jefferies
}and it also more often suggests resistance in the medium{Frémont had tried to penetrate the Colorado Rockies— Gather
}{his sight could not penetrate the darkness
}It may imply either a reaching the center or a passing through and an issuing on the further side{penetrate the depths of a forest
}{armor plate so thick that no cannonball can penetrate it
}Penetrate, especially as an intransitive verb, often specifically takes as its subject something that is intangible or at least not objective but that has (in affirmative expressions) the power of making its way through{the influence of Christianity has penetrated to the ends of the earth
}{a penetrating odor
}{a penetrating voice
}Often also, as distinguished from the other terms, penetrate suggests the use of a keen mind or the exercise of powers of intuition or discernment in the understanding of the abstruse or mysterious{we cannot penetrate the mind of the Absolute— Inge
}{in seeking to penetrate the essential character of European art— Binyon
}{Aunty Rosa could penetrate certain kinds of hypocrisy, but not all— Kipling
}Pierce in the earliest of its English senses implies a running through with a sharp-pointed instrument (as a sword, a spear, or a knife){they pierced both plate and mail— Spenser
}In all of its extended senses it carries a far stronger implication than penetrate of something that stabs or runs through or of something that cuts into the very center or through to the further side{feel the piercing cold in every nerve
}{a passion like a sword blade that pierced me through and through— Lindsay
}{how was one to pierce such hidebound complacency?— Mackenzie
}Often the term imputes great poignancy or aesthetic effectiveness beyond what is usual to the thing that pierces{the remembrance of all that made life dear pierced me to the core— Hudson
}{whatever is expressed with art— whether it be a lover's despair or a metaphysical theory— pierces the mind and compels assent and acceptance— Huxley
}Probe derives its implications from the earliest of its senses, to explore (as a wound, a cavity, or the earth) with a long slender instrument especially in order to determine depth, condition, or contents. In its extended senses it implies penetration so far as circumstances allow or so far as one's powers or skills permit, and it usually suggests an exploratory or investigatory aim{the bog or peat was ascertained, on probing it with an instrument, to be at least fifteen feet thick— Lye 11
}{the only one . . . with whom he cared to probe into things a little deeper than the average level of club and chophouse banter— Wharton
}In some cases probe means little more than to investigate thoroughly (as by questioning those in a position to know facts){a rascally calumny, which I was determined to probe to the bottom— Scott
}Antonyms: issue from2 Enter, introduce, admit are comparable when they mean to cause or permit to go in or get in.Enter, in its causative sense, is used chiefly in idiomatic phrases, though occasionally it is employed in the sense to drive or force in{he could not enter the wedge between the layers of rock
}In idiomatic use it commonly implies writing down (as in a list, a roll, a catalogue, or a record), but in some of these phrases it also connotes the observance of other formalities; thus, to enter a word in a dictionary is to list it in alphabetical order and define its meaning; to enter one's son at a private school is to send in his name as a candidate for admission; to enter a judgment is to put it upon record in the proper legal form and order{the judge could enter a judgment of conviction and send Woodfall to prison— Chafee
}Introduce is often preferred to enter when it implies insertion{the painter who was introducing a tree into his landscape— Ellis
}{when a bit of finely filiated platinum is introduced into a chamber containing oxygen and sulphur dioxide— T. S. Eliot
}{Aunt Harriet . . . introduced herself through the doorway . . . into the interior of the vehicle— Bennett
}It is the precise word when used of things not native and brought into a country or locality for the first time{plants introduced into America by the colonists
}Sometimes its use connotes an alien character in that whose entrance is effected{introduce one's own ideas into the interpretation of a poem
}Admit in this relation usually means let in; it may imply a human agent{the maid admitted the callers to the drawing room
}{I wanted to put in more poems by young poets than he was willing to admit— Spender
}but often a means of getting or passing in{small windows admit light to the cell
}Analogous words: insert, interpolate, intercalate, insinuate, introduce
New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.
