porously

Porously is an adverb describing the manner in which something is porous or permeable through its pores. It indicates that a material or phenomenon allows fluids or gases to pass via a network of pores or small openings. The word is formed from the adjective porous, which comes from Latin porosus meaning full of pores, with the suffix -ly to create an adverb.

The term is chiefly used in technical or scientific writing, including fields such as materials science, geology, biology, and environmental science. It serves to specify that permeability occurs through the presence of pores rather than through bulk motion. For example, geological formations can be porously permeable to groundwater, and a membrane can be porously permeable to water and small ions. In some contexts the word emphasizes the pore-driven nature of the process rather than the overall degree of permeability.

Related terms include porous (adjective describing the presence of pores), porosity (the measure of pore space in a material), and permeability (the ability of a material to transmit fluids). Descriptions using porously are less common in everyday language and are more typical in precise scientific descriptions.

See also: Porosity, Permeability, Porous materials, Capillary action.