impend
Americanverb (used without object)
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impends,
present (3rd person singular)
-
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
-
have been impendingperfect progressive
-
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
At the distance of a mile they appeared to tower and almost impend over us.
From Left on Labrador or, The cruise of the Schooner-yacht 'Curlew.' as Recorded by 'Wash.' by C. A. (Charles Asbury) Stephens
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
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
Besides a deficit of $529,000 incurred last year, a 1934 deficit of $500,000 impends.
From Time Magazine Archive
I have heard the voice Of the Eternal Gods, and well-assured Foretell thee that thy death not now impends.
From The Iliad of Homer Translated into English Blank Verse by William Cowper by William Cowper
Britons wondered whether a Liberal showdown impended at last.
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
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
Even in Havana labor was so disorderly that business paralysis 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
Observers failed to see the impending downturns in 1873, 1929, and 2000.
From Barron's ● Oct. 31, 2026
Still, Buck and Aikman’s impending divorce is a headache for ESPN, which will host its first Super Bowl in February.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 20, 2026
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
I couldn’t sleep that night because I kept thinking about my impending doom.
From "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian" by Sherman Alexie
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
