impend

American  

[im-pend] / ɪmˈpɛnd /

verb (used without object)

• impends,
  present (3rd person singular)
• impended,
  past participle,  past
• impending
  present participle

1. to be imminent; be about to happen.

2. to threaten or menace.

   He felt that danger impended.

3. Archaic. to hang or be suspended; overhang (usually followed byover ).

---

impend British  

/ ɪmˈpɛnd /

verb

1. (esp of something threatening) to be about to happen; be imminent

2. rare (foll by over) to be suspended; hang

---

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• impendence
  noun
• superimpend
  verb (used without object)

Inflected Forms

Participles

• impending
  present
• impended
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• impend
  simple
• impends
  simple
• have impended
  perfect
• has impended
  perfect
• am impending
  progressive
• are impending
  progressive
• is impending
  progressive
• have been impending
  perfect progressive
• has been impending
  perfect progressive

Past

• impended
  simple
• had impended
  perfect
• was impending
  progressive
• were impending
  progressive
• had been impending
  perfect progressive

Future

• will impend
  simple
• will have impended
  perfect
• will be impending
  progressive
• will have been impending
  perfect progressive

---

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."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

impend impends impended impending

“Decline and disaster impend, but my thoughts don’t linger there.”

From Seattle Times ● May 21, 2017

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

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

We crossed this beautiful river at Bellows Falls, where a neat and thriving village has its seat among craggy mountains, which, at a little distance, seem to impend over it.

From Letters of a Traveller Notes of Things Seen in Europe and America by William Cullen Bryant

Broken boulders often impend the river's course for miles, and hopelessly obstruct descent.

From Wild Spain (Espa?a agreste) Records of Sport with Rifle, Rod, and Gun, Natural History Exploration by Walter J. Buck

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

As carnival impends, an imminence like electricity waits in the air, an itching in the mind invites convulsion.

From Time Magazine Archive

I am going home to-morrow," said he, "and therefore am not likely to be one of the unfortunates over whom a mysterious but melancholy fate impends.

From Adrift in the Ice-Fields by Charles W. Hall

When Addison's Disease and its treatment came up for report at Philadelphia, a fight for glory impended.

From Time Magazine Archive

Even in Havana labor was so disorderly that business paralysis impended.

From Time Magazine Archive

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

Other German defeats in other areas impended: > At Krivoi Rog, where the Red Army was closing in on the last great Nazi hedgehog in the Dnieper loop.

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

While shop owners sandbagged the entrances to their stores and boarded up the doors and windows, there was little sense of impending disaster.

From Barron's ● Oct. 10, 2026

The film is a satire about an impending climate change apocalypse that’s triggered by the drilling operations of oil tycoon Digger Rockwell, played by Cruise, who looks nearly unrecognizable clad in prosthetics and greying hair.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 4, 2026

Some economists worry about an impending artificial-intelligence job apocalypse, but so far there is no conclusive evidence that automation is killing lots of white-collar positions.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026

One story for Wakefield to thrive upon is the impending retirement of stalwart back-rower Jay Pitts.

From BBC ● Oct. 2, 2026

Auntie Harrigan, who had already heard about their impending move from Papa, sat herself down on a cardboard box full of packed books and listened to every word.

From "The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street" by Karina Yan Glaser

Random Word

Spin the wheel and learn a new word!

---