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:
"This effect was also observed in germ-free mice, suggesting that butyrate can establish a lasting intestinal environment that does not depend on continuous microbial stimulation."
From Science Daily ● Aug. 21, 2026
It is impossible to precisely predict colleges’ admission rates in the future as those numbers depend on a lot of things, including the reputations of campus culture, sports team wins and even the weather.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 20, 2026
As with all things Harry and Meghan, how the public view this will depend on the often entrenched views people have of the Sussexes.
From BBC ● Aug. 20, 2026
Kissinger opened his short two-paragraph tribute by essentially saying that the presidential transition process is difficult and that a president who doesn’t know anything must depend on his advisers to help him through it.
From Salon ● Aug. 20, 2026
Tie notes, as we have seen, that some signs virtually speak for themselves—bloodstained clothing, a cry—but others depend heavily on interpretation.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
That depends on many variables — how much you’re willing to spend, how eager/desperate you are to see a particular sport, how you feel about dealing with the resale market.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 20, 2026
"But it takes many years of caring before they are actually identified. And then the support in place to help is patchy, it really depends on where you live."
From BBC ● Aug. 20, 2026
Experts say it depends on your income level.
From Barron's ● Aug. 20, 2026
In the Moneyist reader’s utopia, everyone has an out-of-pocket cap that depends on their income, and health insurance covers the genuinely catastrophic expenses above that ceiling.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 18, 2026
The kind of power you seek depends on your worldview—what is necessary to survive, and what is most important.
From "How It Went Down" by Kekla Magoon
Ultimately the behaviour of a fire depended on a combination of factors, including wind, heat, embers, available fuel and the layout of individual homes, he added.
From BBC ● Aug. 20, 2026
Additional targets were hit in Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates—also part of the supply chain that the Navy had depended on for decades.
From Slate ● Aug. 19, 2026
Evyn Le Espiritu Gandhi, a faculty member in Asian American studies, has depended on the program for her two children.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 17, 2026
That finding suggests that the earliest metabolism depended much more heavily on the surrounding environment than modern cellular metabolism does.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 12, 2026
Telescopes and microscopes depended on pre-existing techniques for making lenses, and thermometers and barometers depended on pre-existing techniques for blowing glass.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
But depending on where you are, in-person sessions can be pricey, or hard to come by.
From BBC ● Aug. 21, 2026
"And depending on how you hit them, the two phases respond differently."
From Science Daily ● Aug. 20, 2026
Percentages range from 4% to 10% depending on the state.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 19, 2026
Mourinho might be a loose cannon—or a tabloid villain, depending on whom you ask—but he is a known quantity.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 18, 2026
I watch how different skirts flow, the way they hang depending on a woman’s height, her shape, the design of the dress.
From "Betty Before X" by Ilyasah Shabazz and Renée Watson
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
