Dependencies

How to spell dependencies

12 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce dependencies

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does dependencies mean?

1. nounThings, people, or conditions that something else relies on in order to function or continue.
2. nounTerritories or regions that are governed or controlled by another country.

Dependencies in a sentence

• The project stalled because several key dependencies were not delivered on time.

• The crown dependencies have their own legal systems but rely on the larger nation for defence.

• Before installing the program, the system checks that all software dependencies are present.

• Several small island dependencies are administered from the capital thousands of miles away.

Where does dependencies 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', built from de- 'down, from' and pendere '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 picked up 'dependence' and 'dependency' through Old French in the late medieval and early modern periods, and the plural 'dependencies' came to cover any group of things, people, or territories that lean on something else for support or control. The same pendere root hangs inside a whole family of relatives, including 'pendant' (a hanging ornament), 'pending' (still hanging, unresolved), and 'suspend'. The spelling trap lives in the unstressed middle: writers must remember the -ency ending becomes -encies in the plural, not -ancies, and the schwa-coloured vowels give no help to the ear.

How the word is built

• de- (down, from)
• pend (hang)
• -ency (state/quality noun)
• -ies (plural)