immanence

American  

[im-uh-nuhns] / ˈɪm ə nəns /

Rarely immanency

noun

1. the state of being inherent or exclusively existing within something.

   “Place” is a fundamental concept; it has evaded theorizing because of its immanence and omnipresence.

2. Theology. the state or quality of a Deity exclusively existing within the universe, time, etc..

   A horizontal axis stretches from God’s immanence in the world, on the left, to transcendence of it, on the right.

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Other Word Forms

• nonimmanence noun
• nonimmanency noun

Etymology

Origin of immanence

imman(ent) ( def. ) + -ence ( def. )

Compare meaning

How does immanence compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

• immanence vs. transcendence

Example Sentences

Joyce’s presence in this city is already radically overdetermined, overbearing in its intimacy and immanence.

From The Guardian • Oct. 23, 2019

From the moment a strange woman named Lioness Lazos appears in the mundane, rundown lives of a pair of aging lovers, magic’s immanence blooms.

From Seattle Times • Dec. 28, 2016

“We have been trained to see childbirth as all immanence, an event that is confined to our bodies and evaporates in the next days or weeks as our memories of the pain recedes,” Erens writes.

From Slate • May 2, 2016

We’ve passed from the costs of totalitarian societies and their inherent barbarism to the risks of globalized societies and the immanence of their barbarity.”

From The New Yorker • Jan. 14, 2016

And as the ages recede, the immanence of the Divine becomes more consciously, more pervadingly present.

From The Origins and Destiny of Imperial Britain Nineteenth Century Europe by Cramb, J. A. (John Adam)