dependent
or de·pend·ant
[dih-pen-duh nt]
- relying on someone or something else for aid, support, etc.
- conditioned or determined by something else; contingent: Our trip is dependent on the weather.
- subordinate; subject: a dependent territory.
- Grammar. not used in isolation; used only in connection with other forms. In I walked out when the bell rang, when the bell rang is a dependent clause.Compare independent(def 14), main1(def 4).
- hanging down; pendent.
- Mathematics.
- (of a variable) having values determined by one or more independent variables.
- (of an equation) having solutions that are identical to those of another equation or to those of a set of equations.
- Statistics. (of an event or a value) not statistically independent.
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- a person who depends on or needs someone or something for aid, support, favor, etc.
- a child, spouse, parent, or certain other relative to whom one contributes all or a major amount of necessary financial support: She listed two dependents on her income-tax form.
- Archaic. a subordinate part.
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Origin of dependent
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for dependent
Contemporary Examples
In 2014, any dependent youth who earns more than $6,200 will have to report those earnings to the IRS.
Paying Taxes and Going to Jail Like Adults; Teens Deserve the Right to Vote, TooJillian Keenan
October 6, 2014
Seven of the ten Congressional candidates most dependent on the money of the ultra-rich were Democrats.
Much of our ability is dependent on two rocket engines, the RD-180 and the NK-33/AJ26.
The bacteria are dependent on the nutrients being supplied to them in the lab.
My living is dependent on that reputation and I worked hard to earn it.
Historical Examples
But she could not get her mother's feeling of him as a helpless, dependent thing.
Life and Death of Harriett FreanMay Sinclair
I know little of them; and happily we shall not be dependent on the result of my management.
Weighed and WantingGeorge MacDonald
Nay, would his uncle, on whom he was dependent, consent to such a refusal?
Alice, or The Mysteries, CompleteEdward Bulwer-Lytton
We feel ourselves so dependent on it for all that is yet to come.
Alice, or The Mysteries, CompleteEdward Bulwer-Lytton
We were both too young, too dependent and helpless, to do anything but accept our separation.
Little DorritCharles Dickens
dependent
sometimes US dependant
- depending on a person or thing for aid, support, life, etc
- (postpositive; foll by on or upon) influenced or conditioned (by); contingent (on)
- subordinate; subjecta dependent prince
- obsolete hanging down
- maths
- (of a variable) having a value depending on that assumed by a related independent variable
- (of a linear equation) having every solution as a solution of one or more given linear equations
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- grammar an element in a phrase or clause that is not the governor
- a variant spelling (esp US) of dependant
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confusable
Avoid confusion with dependant
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for dependent
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
dependent
(dĭ-pĕn′dənt)- Contingent on or subordinate to another.
- Relying on or requiring the aid of another for support.
- Hanging down.
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- One who relies on another especially for financial support.
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The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.