impending

Etymology

From Latin impendō (“to overhang”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɪmˈpɛndɪŋ/

Adjective

impending (not comparable)

1. Approaching; drawing near; about to happen or expected to happen.

   I have no time right now because of an impending paper submission deadline.

Verb

impending

1. present participle of impend

   The hurricane is impending.

Noun

impending (plural impendings)

1. Something that impends or threatens; an expected event.
   • 1934, Arabella Kenealy, The Human Gyroscope

     Speed of locomotion and staying power in horse and others; the sense of smell in dog and in most other creatures (a far subtler and more analytical faculty than is man's mere perception of odour). Even an uncanny supra-natural sense of natural impendings, catastrophe, earthquake and flood, lacking in man, is found in simpler creatures.

   • 1994, Steve Garvey, quoted in 2000, Nicholas Barnes, ‎Ainin H. Garvey, The Lost Writings of Steve Garvey (page 23)

     Although I do think about death quite regularly, my intense fear of lesser impendings has taught me that the only way I will survive it is to remain objective […]