- liable to happen soon; impending
- obsolete jutting out or overhanging
WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2026
im•mi•nent /ˈɪmənənt/USA pronunciation
adj.
im•mi•nent•ly, adv.
WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2026- likely to occur at any moment:the imminent collapse of communism.
im•mi•nent•ly, adv.
im•mi•nent
(im′ə nənt),USA pronunciation adj.
im′mi•nent•ly, adv.
im′mi•nent•ness, n.
- likely to occur at any moment;
impending:Her death is imminent. - projecting or leaning forward;
overhanging.
- Latin imminent- (stem of imminēns), present participle of imminēre to overhang, equivalent. to im- im-1 + -min- from a base meaning "jut out, project, rise'' (compare eminent, mount2) + -ent- -ent
- 1520–30
im′mi•nent•ness, n.
- 1. near, at hand. Imminent, Impending, Threatening all may carry the implication of menace, misfortune, disaster, but they do so in differing degrees. Imminent may portend evil:an imminent catastrophe,but also may mean simply "about to happen'':The merger is imminent.Impending has a weaker sense of immediacy and threat than imminent:Real tax relief legislation is impending,but it too may be used in situations portending disaster:impending social upheaval; to dread the impending investigation.Threatening almost always suggests ominous warning and menace:a threatening sky just before the tornado struck.
- 1. distant, remote.
Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::
imminent /ˈɪmɪnənt/ adj
'imminent' also found in these entries (note: many are not synonyms or translations):
Adventist
- cliffhanger
- escape
- hang
- impend
- impending
- near
- pending
- Seventh-Day Adventist
- stare
- store
- term
- threat
- toward
- upon
- afraid
- apocalyptic
- await
- blue peter
- bracket
- Catholic Apostolic Church
- Chicken Little
- Church of God
- close-at-hand
- Damocles
- danger
- deathtrap
- eminent
- fat
- fear
- frighten
- grave
- hand
- house of cards
- imminence
- Jehovah's Witnesses
- oppose
- prominent
- proximate
- ready
- red alert
- threatening
- uncertain
- up
- upcoming
- wall
- warning
- wind
- salvage archaeology
- stagger