Depend

How to spell depend

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce depend

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does depend mean?

1. verbTo rely on someone or something for support, help, or a particular outcome.

Depend in a sentence

• Many small businesses depend on a handful of loyal customers.

• The success of the trip will depend on the weather.

Where does depend come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes from the Latin verb dependere, which literally meant 'to hang down' or 'to hang from'. It was formed from the prefix de-, meaning 'down' or 'from', joined to pendere, the verb meaning 'to hang'. English took it in through Old French dependre during the late 1400s, and the modern sense grew naturally out of the image of one thing hanging from another: if something hangs from a support, its fate is tied to that support, so to depend on something is to rely on it. The same pendere root hangs inside many familiar relatives, including pendant (something that hangs), pending (still hanging, not yet settled), and suspend (to hang up). Knowing that the middle is pend, the Latin for 'hang', helps fix the spelling and explains why there is no double letter to worry about.

How the word is built

• de- (down, from)
• pend (to hang, from Latin pendere)