depend
Americanverb (used without object)
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depends,
present (3rd person singular)
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depended,
past participle, past
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depending
present participle
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to rely; place trust (usually followed by on orupon ).
You may depend on the accuracy of the report.
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to rely for support, maintenance, help, etc. (usually followed by on orupon ).
Children depend on their parents.
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to be conditioned or contingent (usually followed by on orupon ).
His success here depends upon effort and ability.
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to be undetermined or pending.
I may go to Europe or I may not, it all depends.
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Grammar. (of a word or other linguistic form) to be subordinate to another linguistic form in the same construction; to form a part of a construction other than the head.
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to hang down; be suspended (usually followed byfrom ).
The chandelier depends from the ceiling of the ballroom.
verb
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to put trust (in); rely (on); be sure (of)
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to be influenced or determined (by); be resultant (from)
whether you come or not depends on what father says
it all depends on you
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to rely (on) for income, support, etc
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rare (foll by from) to hang down; be suspended
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to be undecided or pending
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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dependsimple
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dependssimple
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have dependedperfect
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has dependedperfect
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am dependingprogressive
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are dependingprogressive
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is dependingprogressive
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have been dependingperfect progressive
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has been dependingperfect progressive
Past
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dependedsimple
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had dependedperfect
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was dependingprogressive
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were dependingprogressive
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had been dependingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of depend
First recorded in 1375–1425; late Middle English dependen, from Old French dependre, from Latin dēpendere “to hang down,” from dē- de- + pendere “to hang”
Explanation
To depend is to have confidence in something or someone. You can depend on your most loyal friend to show up for your modern dance performance in the park (although you probably can't depend on her liking it). Depend can also mean "determined by or contingent on something else." For example, if rain is in the forecast, your outdoor dance performance may be cancelled; it depends on the weather. Depend is almost always followed by the word on or upon, with upon being more formal. If you're speaking informally, you may drop the on or upon, as in "It all depends how you feel." Your decision to do that will, of course, depend upon your audience.
Vocabulary lists containing depend
"Julius Caesar" by William Shakespeare, Act III
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Sarah, Plain and Tall
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"How Do We Use Water?"
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The underlying message is straightforward: better blood pressure control may depend not only on what people remove from their diets, but also on what they add.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 2, 2026
When the judge asked for more details on how prosecutors planned to proceed with a potential retrial, Sprague responded: "This would be a retrial - as to what that looks like will depend".
From BBC ● Nov. 2, 2026
"This would be a retrial. As to what that looks like will depend," prosecutor Jennifer Sprague told a Massachusetts court, without saying what charges Clancy would face.
From Barron's ● Nov. 2, 2026
Shares of companies that depend financially on each other should move more closely together.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 1, 2026
“Yes—it seems to depend upon nothing but the ill-humour of Mrs. Churchill, which I imagine to be the most certain thing in the world.”
From "Emma" by Jane Austen
The future of Israel now depends on its Arab citizens and on the attitude of its Jewish citizens toward its Arab ones.
From Salon ● Nov. 2, 2026
Syria depends partly on imported petrol, leaving its people susceptible to shortages and long lines at stations.
From Barron's ● Oct. 30, 2026
And that depends somewhat on Bigfoot, which the area has long embraced as a mascot.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 29, 2026
However, interpreting these records depends on knowing when each layer formed.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 29, 2026
Conducting26 also depends on the meter of the piece; conductors use different conducting patterns for the different meters.
From "Understanding Basic Music Theory" by Catherine Schmidt-Jones and Russel Jones
Since the move, she has lost the work she depended on.
From BBC ● Nov. 3, 2026
These discoveries depended on the complementary capabilities of NASA's two powerful space observatories.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 2, 2026
Wendy’s new CEO has told franchisees and investors that the company shortchanged ingredient quality for cost savings, that service had become uneven and that Wendy’s depended too much on deals.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 28, 2026
But the pleasure depended on a temporary arrangement, one in which somebody else’s home had been made available for my enjoyment, and in which I understood that eventually I’d have to hand it back.
From Salon ● Oct. 28, 2026
The intellectual apparatus of the new science—facts, experiments, theories, laws of nature, evidence—did not establish its worth by philosophical arguments; its success depended upon the fact that, in practice, it produced good results.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
The landscape varies depending on the side of town.
From Salon ● Oct. 31, 2026
Instead, it demonstrates something that was previously difficult to test: A quantum system can possess a meaningful internal measure of time without depending on an external clock.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 30, 2026
“The combination of persistent inflation pressures and robust consumption should keep further monetary tightening on the agenda, with the December and February meetings potentially in play depending on incoming inflation data.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 30, 2026
"They're good problems for us to have. We will learn more about that in Australia, but we will always do what's right for the team depending on conditions and the opposition."
From BBC ● Oct. 29, 2026
By nightfall they were depending almost entirely on radio navigation, counting on people far away to relay their location to them in radio messages.
From "A Thousand Sisters" by Elizabeth Wein
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
