impend
Americanverb (used without object)
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impends,
present (3rd person singular)
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impended,
past participle, past
-
impending
present participle
-
to be imminent; be about to happen.
-
to threaten or menace.
He felt that danger impended.
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Archaic. to hang or be suspended; overhang (usually followed byover ).
verb
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(esp of something threatening) to be about to happen; be imminent
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rare (foll by over) to be suspended; hang
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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impendsimple
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impendssimple
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have impendedperfect
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has impendedperfect
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am impendingprogressive
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are impendingprogressive
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is impendingprogressive
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have been impendingperfect progressive
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has been impendingperfect progressive
Past
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impendedsimple
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had impendedperfect
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was impendingprogressive
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were impendingprogressive
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had been impendingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of impend
First recorded in 1580–90, impend is from the Latin word impendēre to hang over, threaten. See im- 1, pend
Explanation
When things impend, they are just about to happen. As you're heading into a haunted house, you might have the feeling that spooky noises and lurching monsters impend. While you're more likely to see the adjective form of this word, impending, used to describe something that's looming or coming up in the future, you can also use the verb impend when something is approaching or developing. You could say, for example, that winter impends when the leaves have all fallen off the trees and the temperature has dropped. The Latin root is impendere, "hang over or be imminent," from pendere, or "hang."
Vocabulary lists containing impend
Latin Love, Vol III: pendere
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"The Pit and the Pendulum" by Edgar Allan Poe
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pend, pens, List 2
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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:
“Decline and disaster impend, but my thoughts don’t linger there.”
From Seattle Times ● May 21, 2017
An international incident seemed to impend when the Rumanian ghouls incautiously admitted that they had pulled the corpse this way and that, in an effort to find contraband goods in the coffin.
From Time Magazine Archive
But "she was cognizant of the crises that impend in all human breasts" and considered that "innocent intimacy was preferable to unacknowledged proximity."
From Time Magazine Archive
One speaks upon occasion, giving him warning when grave troubles impend.
From The Woodlands Orchids by Frederick Boyle
To Hugh a crisis seemed to impend, but he held off for the Gilmores, who seemed to be used to crises.
From Gideon's Band A Tale of the Mississippi by George Washington Cable
Especially after Disher and Givens marry in Georgia, and a baby of likely mixed race impends, the musical pushes too hard toward tragedy, winding up well short at melodrama.
From New York Times ● Feb. 15, 2022
And it being the middle of May mosquito season impends.
From US News ● May 13, 2016
Peril impends when a note comes announcing that her visit must be put off.
From New York Times ● Mar. 18, 2011
Some businessmen already fear a depression impends over the U. S. The boat chuffed along the greening, creek-cut shore of Lake Champlain near Burlington, Vt., an afternoon last week.
From Time Magazine Archive
He seems neither to know whether it be misfortune or the opposite which impends him.
From Roland Cashel Volume II (of II) by Charles James Lever
In another Manhattan art-huckstering shop, one more sale impended in the life of a vase once owned by Catherine the Great and later smashed by Napoleon.
From Time Magazine Archive
Britons wondered whether a Liberal showdown impended at last.
From Time Magazine Archive
No title impended; it was primarily an affair of honor between two of the keenest match-playy golfers that ever cut a divot.
From Time Magazine Archive
When Addison's Disease and its treatment came up for report at Philadelphia, a fight for glory impended.
From Time Magazine Archive
After the departure of the detectives, the composure that had impressed Nye faltered; a familiar despair impended.
From "In Cold Blood" by Truman Capote
Oura gathers a range of health data including heart rate and sleep patterns and uses them to develop predictions and personalized insights in areas such as impending illness and menstrual cycles.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 20, 2026
The debate was sparked not by an impending reality but instead by comments from a player who’s no stranger to controversy.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 19, 2026
He told me he had gotten “at least 100 calls” since the local news item announcing the impending closure.
From Slate ● Aug. 14, 2026
Oman is facing an impending environmental catastrophe as an alleged Russian shadow fleet tanker leaks oil across hundreds of square kilometres near a nature reserve, NGOs warn.
From Barron's ● Aug. 6, 2026
But impending death has a way of focusing your attention.
From "Wishtree" by Katherine Applegate
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.
