imminent
adjective
Steven L. ThompsonWill ManleyMolly O'Neill
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On Imminent and Eminent
Imminent bears a close resemblance to eminent, and native English-speakers can be excused if they sometimes have to check their spelling. No surprise, really, since the two, despite their very distinct meanings, come from near-identical sources. The Latin minēre means basically “to project, overhang,” and it forms the root of other Latin words. One added the prefix e-, meaning “out from,” to produce eminēre, “to stand out”; another took the prefix im-, meaning “upon,” and became imminēre, “to project.” The difference between “stand out” and “project” is obviously small. Still, even when eminent and imminent first appeared as English words in the 15th and 16th centuries respectively, they were clearly distinct in meaning, imminent’s prefix having strengthened the “overhang” sense of minēre to give the word its frequent suggestion of looming threat.
Examples of imminent in a Sentence
Richard A. Clarke, Atlantic, January/February 2005
The compression squashes the bullet slightly, enabling about a half-dozen spiral grooves cut along the barrel's inner wall to grab the bullet and make it spin. That spin stabilizes the bullet's imminent flight.
—Peter Weiss, Science News, 11 Jan. 2003
Plaints about the imminent demise of the language are made in every century. But there is usually nothing inherently wrong with most changes the purists deplore.
—Steven Pinker, New York Times, 24 Dec. 1999
We are awaiting their imminent arrival.
These patients are facing imminent death.
Catherina Gioino, Fortune, 6 Apr. 2026
In 2023, a report from the Police Executive Research Forum, a national think tank on policing standards, called for police to put the brakes on car chases unless a violent crime has been committed and the suspect poses an imminent threat.
—ABC News, 5 Apr. 2026
Within hours, however, news of her imminent departure had spread.
—Natalie Allison The Washington Post, Arkansas Online, 5 Apr. 2026
Almost no European ally believes the president’s assertion, the lynchpin of his justification for starting the war, that Iranian nuclear ambitions posed an imminent threat to either Israel or the West.
—Max Hastings, Twin Cities, 5 Apr. 2026
See All Example Sentences for imminent
Cite this Entry
“Imminent.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/imminent. Accessed 8 Apr. 2026.
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imminent
adjective
