impend
Americanverb (used without object)
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to be imminent; be about to happen.
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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
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
Two high cliffs near it impend over the sea, which are commonly called the Heads of Ayr, and not far from these stands a fragment of an ancient castle.
From Letters of a Traveller Notes of Things Seen in Europe and America by Bryant, William Cullen
The wreck and ruin of a great railroad system to his exaggerated senses seemed to impend on his success in a daring dive.
From Ralph in the Switch Tower by Chapman, Allen
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
Can we, the republics of the New World, help the Old World to avert the catastrophe which impends?
From Time Magazine Archive
Since the strongest of the fishes—persecute the weaker still, Over us impends for ever—our inevitable fate.
From Nala and Damayanti and Other Poems by Milman, Henry Hart
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
Talks important to Britain impended with the arrival of U.S.
From Time Magazine Archive
Even in Havana labor was so disorderly that business paralysis impended.
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
For many years, if you needed to take a flight due to a family member’s death or impending death, airlines would offer a discounted bereavement, or compassionate, ticket.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 9, 2026
Elliot Anderson will now become the most expensive British player in history as the midfielder's impending £116m move to Manchester City from Nottingham Forest shatters previous marks.
From BBC ● Jul. 2, 2026
Against the backdrop of the impending presidential election—cue laughter at references to Hillary Clinton’s inevitable win—their affinities and hopes emerge and diverge.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 2, 2026
Another season, outfielder Craig Simon, knowing he was weak at the plate, intentionally struck out so he could avoid an impending double play, much to the dismay of the opposing team.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 26, 2026
Thankfully, the meatball sub had averted the impending Laleh-clysm.
From "Darius the Great Is Not Okay" by Adib Khorram
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.
