Imminent

How to spell imminent

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce imminent

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does imminent mean?

1. adjectiveAbout to happen very soon; looming and ready to occur.

Imminent in a sentence

• The dark clouds warned of an imminent storm.

• The board met because bankruptcy seemed imminent within days.

Where does imminent come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes from the Latin imminere, which literally meant 'to project over' or 'to overhang', formed from the prefix im- ('in' or 'upon') and minere ('to jut out, to threaten'). The mental picture is of something looming directly above you, on the verge of falling; from that physical sense of overhanging it shifted to the idea of an event hanging just ahead and about to occur. English adopted the adjective imminent in the sixteenth century, almost always with a sense of urgency or threat close at hand. The same minere root surfaces in 'prominent' (jutting forward) and 'eminent' (standing out above), which is exactly why imminent and eminent are so easily muddled in writing. There is also a third look-alike, 'immanent' (meaning inherent or indwelling, a term from theology), so the double letters and the i/a vowel are worth fixing firmly in memory.

How the word is built

• im- (in, upon)
• min (from minere: to project or overhang)
• -ent (adjective suffix)