Pending

How to spell pending

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce pending

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does pending mean?

1. adjectiveAwaiting a decision, settlement, or completion; not yet resolved.
2. prepositionWhile awaiting; until the time of.

Pending in a sentence

• adjective

  The loan application is still pending approval from the bank.

• preposition

  The suspect was held in custody pending further investigation.

• adjective

  Several court cases remain pending until the new judge is appointed.

• preposition

  All trading was suspended pending a formal announcement from the board.

Where does pending come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb pendere, which literally meant 'to hang' and, by extension, 'to weigh' or 'to be left unresolved', since a matter that hangs in the balance has not yet been settled. It entered English in the early 1600s, partly modelled on the French pendant ('during', 'hanging'), as a legal term describing a lawsuit that was still hanging, that is, awaiting a decision. From that courtroom use it broadened into the everyday adjective for anything not yet decided and into a preposition meaning 'while awaiting'. The same pendere root hangs quietly inside many relatives such as 'pendant', 'suspend', 'depend' and 'appendix', all of which share the idea of something hanging or being attached. Because the word is simply pend plus -ing, the spelling is regular and rarely trips writers, though its quiet single 'd' is the only thing to watch.

How the word is built

• pend (from Latin pendere: to hang, to weigh)
• -ing (suffix forming an adjective/preposition)