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I want to say something along the lines of: "It's remarkable how [a philosophy/way of thinking] seems to _______________ (in/to) all aspects of my life."

I think the word may end in -ize, but I'm really not sure. What is an appropriate verb in a statement like the one above?

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  • Omnipresent, perhaps. – keshlam Jan 22 '15 at 4:59
  • Invade, perhaps. – Drew Jan 22 '15 at 5:19
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    Infiltrate maybe. I would propose "crawls". Atleast in Germany we say "Like sand at the beach, crawling into every crack in which it should not" – AverageGatsby Jan 22 '15 at 5:23
  • The sentence is ungrammatical (amazing at), unidiomatic (sectors of my life), and the register is all over the place (amazing vs philosophy), so the choice of that one word is the least of you problems. Whichever word you pick, it will be a very, very poor sentence. The answerers do recognize that and suggest rewordings, but that amounts to proofreading and is off-topic as such. – RegDwigнt♦ Jan 22 '15 at 10:41
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    @pyobum The ELU Help Center says that questions may be considered unsuitable for the site. The 'unclear' close-vote reason is a valid option. ELU is intended as a site for discussion among 'linguists' etc, not for tidying up poor grammar etc. – Edwin Ashworth Jan 23 '15 at 16:43
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I propose "pervade"

...seems to pervade my whole life.

Pervade meaning to be present throughout or spread through all areas of something

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The word "permeates" works very nicely in the context you've provided.

Permeate is often used in the phrase "X permeates every aspect of Y," and Y is frequently "life/lives." Here are a few examples I grabbed from online sources: a headline--Ebola crisis permeates every aspect of people's lives, a line in a movie review--A love and passion for comics permeates every aspect of the film..., and a quote--"Self-respect permeates every aspect of your life." -Joe Clark

As in the examples above, I would say that permeate works well in your sentence.

"...it's amazing how Taoism seems to (have) permeate(d) all aspects of my life."

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Through a process of osmosis or diffusion?

OSMOSIS:

2: a process of absorption or diffusion suggestive of the flow of osmotic action; especially : a usually effortless often unconscious assimilation, learned a number of languages by osmosis—Roger Kimball

DIFFUSE:

2: not concentrated or localized, diffuse lighting; diffuse sclerosis — dif•fuse•ly adverb; — dif•fuse•ness noun

All from Merriam-Webster online

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It's possible you're thinking of "metastasize", although that's usually used of negative things, like cancer.

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protected by tchrist♦ Jan 23 '15 at 23:46

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