Meanings
- not comparableApproaching; drawing near; about to happen or expected to happen.
I have no time right now because of an impending paper submission deadline.
2 more examples
"Keep off Conductor Rails" said red-painted notices at the platform ends, for third-rails were laid in many places even where electric trains never normally ran, and there had been many rumours of impending electrification of the Wirral, as a natural extension of the Mersey system, a quarter of a century before the change was actually made.
1954 March, W. A. Tuplin, “Recollections of the Wirral Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 167Randall and Kate aren’t satirical characters. They’re rational thinkers who unwittingly stumble into a Dr. Strangelove type of situation when they discover mankind’s impending doom, and team up with Dr. Teddy Oglethorpe (Rob Morgan) to report their findings to President Orlean (Meryl Streep).
2021 December 7, Jesse Hassenger, “Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence cope with disaster in the despairing satire Don’t Look Up”, in AV ClubSynonyms: imminent, in the offing, proximate, around the corner, at hand, forthcoming, imminent, impendent
plural impendings
- Something that impends or threatens; an expected event.
Although I do think about death quite regularly, my intense fear of lesser impendings has taught me that the only way I will survive it is to remain objective […]
1994, Steve Garvey, quoted in 2000, Nicholas Barnes, Ainin H. Garvey, The Lost Writings of Steve Garvey (page 23)1 more example
Speed of locomotion and staying power in horse and others; the sense of smell in dog and in most other creatures (a far subtler and more analytical faculty than is man's mere perception of odour). Even an uncanny supra-natural sense of natural impendings, catastrophe, earthquake and flood, lacking in man, is found in simpler creatures.
1934, Arabella Kenealy, The Human Gyroscope
Synonyms & antonyms
adjectiveApproaching; drawing near; about to happen or expected to happen.
More synonyms by meaning
adjectiveclose in time; about to occur
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
Translations
Bulgarian предстоящ
- предстоящ (predstojašt)about to happen
Catalan imminent
- imminentabout to happen
Czech blížící se
- blížící seabout to happen
Dutch nakend
- nakendabout to happen
Esperanto antaŭstaranta
- antaŭstarantaabout to happen
French imminent
- imminentabout to happen
German bevorstehend
- bevorstehendabout to happen
Māori raraka, whano
- rarakaabout to happen
- whanoabout to happen
Persian قریبالوقوع
- قریبالوقوع (qarib-olvoqu')about to happen
Portuguese iminente
- iminenteabout to happen
Russian приближа́ющийся, надвига́ющийся
- приближа́ющийся (približájuščijsja)about to happen
- надвига́ющийся (nadvigájuščijsja)about to happen
- предстоя́щий (predstojáščij)about to happen
Spanish impendiente, impendedor
- impendienteabout to happen
- impendedorabout to happen
Swedish hotande, förestående
- hotandeabout to happen
- föreståendeabout to happen
- kommandeabout to happen
Ukrainian навислий, той, що наближається
- навислий (navyslyj)about to happen
- той, що наближається (toj, ščo nablyžajetʹsja)about to happen
- той, що насувається (toj, ščo nasuvajetʹsja)about to happen
Yiddish באַלדיק
- באַלדיק (baldik)about to happen
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with impending
Cite this entry
impending. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/impending
“impending.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/impending. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “impending,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/impending.
Source: impending on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.