Independent

How to spell independent

11 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce independent

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does independent mean?

1. adjectiveFree from the control, support, or influence of others; self-reliant or self-governing.

Independent in a sentence

• After years of saving she became financially independent of her parents.

• The report was prepared by an independent panel with no ties to the company.

Where does independent come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word comes ultimately from the Latin verb pendere, meaning 'to hang' or 'to weigh', which gave the sense of depending on something, literally hanging from it. The compound dependere meant 'to hang down from', and from it medieval and later Latin built dependens, 'hanging upon' or relying on. To express the opposite, the negating prefix in-, meaning 'not', was added, producing the idea of 'not hanging from' or 'not relying on'. English took the word in the early 1600s, partly through French independant, to describe people and bodies that owed allegiance or support to no other. The buried root pend still survives in everyday relatives such as 'pendant', 'pending' and 'suspend', and remembering that hidden 'pend' helps explain why the ending is spelled -ent rather than -ant.

How the word is built

• in- (not)
• de- (down/from)
• pend (hang)
• -ent (adjective suffix)