Meaning & use
infiltration
Last updated
Meanings
nouncountable or uncountablemilitary
The secret process of entering an organization, place, or group to gather information, gain influence, or weaken it.
Grammar: Can be uncountable as an activity or countable for one act: infiltration of the group, several infiltrations.
Patterns
- infiltration of an organization
- prevent infiltration
- suspect infiltration
Security was tightened after the infiltration of the research network.
The report described the slow infiltration of the political party by outside agents.
nouncountable or uncountabletechnicalspecialist
The gradual movement of a liquid or gas into soil, tissue, or another material.
Grammar: Often uncountable in science; countable when measuring separate events or rates of water entering soil.
Patterns
- water infiltration
- soil infiltration
- increase infiltration
Heavy planting improved water infiltration in the dry field.
Doctors watched for infiltration of fluid into the surrounding tissue.
Common combinations
- infiltration of a group
- The infiltration of a group can take months of careful deception.
- water infiltration
- Engineers measured water infiltration after the storm.
- prevent infiltration
- Firewalls help prevent infiltration of the company network.
- military infiltration
- The exercise practiced silent military infiltration at night.
- increase infiltration
- Mulch can increase infiltration and reduce runoff.
Synonyms and how they differ
- penetration
- More general; can be physical or abstract, while infiltration often suggests secrecy or gradual seeping.
- infiltrating
- The verb form focuses on the action; use infiltration for the process or result.
Word family
- infiltrate verb
- To enter secretly or gradually; also of liquids passing into material.
- infiltrator noun
- A person who enters a group secretly.
Commonly confused: infiltration or exfiltration?
infiltration vs exfiltration
Infiltration is getting in secretly; exfiltration is secretly getting people or data out.
Practice
In the sentence “Rain improved _____ through the dry soil,” which is best?
Choose one answer.
Water moving gradually into soil is infiltration; an infiltrator is a person, exfiltration means removing something secretly, and inflammation is body swelling.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “infiltration”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.