Dependence

How to spell dependence

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce dependence

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does dependence mean?

1. nounThe state of relying on someone or something for support, help, or existence.

Dependence in a sentence

• The report warned about the country's dependence on imported oil.

• Years of unemployment left him in total dependence on his family.

Where does dependence come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb dependere, which literally meant 'to hang down' or 'to hang from', formed from de- meaning 'down or from' and pendere meaning 'to hang'. The idea of one thing physically hanging from another shifted naturally into the figurative sense of one thing relying on or being supported by another. English took the word through Old French dependre in the late Middle Ages, and by the seventeenth century 'dependence' described the state of needing someone or something for support. The same pendere root hangs inside a whole family of relatives such as 'pendant', 'pending', 'suspend', and 'pendulum', all of which carry that original notion of hanging. The spelling trap is the ending: it is -ence, not -ance, because English inherited the Latin -entia form, and remembering the related word 'dependent' can anchor the e.

How the word is built

• de- (down, from)
• pend (to hang)
• -ence (noun of state or quality)