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depend.

To be contingent or conditioned; to have something as a necessary condition

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/dɪˈpɛnd/Received-Pronunciation/dɪˈpɛnd/General-American/di-/General-American/dəˈpɛnd/

  1. To be contingent or conditioned; to have something as a necessary condition

    intransitive
    We would like to go skiing, but it depends on the amount of snow.

  2. To trust; to have confidence; to rely.

    intransitive
    we should all be able to depend on the word or assurance of our friends
    we depend on the mailman to come at the usual time.

  3. To hang down; to be sustained by being fastened or attached to something above, especially in heraldry, where a badge, decoration, or element is suspended from another part of an achievement of arms.

    literary

  4. To be pending; to be undetermined or undecided.

    archaic
    a cause depending in court

  5. To cause to be contingent or dependent on; to set as a necessity.

    transitive
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *de Proto-Indo-European *-h₁ Proto-Indo-European *déh₁ Proto-Italic *dē Latin dē Latin dē- Proto-Indo-European *(s)pend- Proto-Indo-European *(s)pn̥d-éh₁ye-ti Proto-Italic *pendējō Proto-Italic *pendēō Latin pendeō Latin dependeōder. Old French dependreder. Middle English dependen English depend Inherited from Middle English dependen, from Old French dependre, from Latin dependeō, from dē- + pendeō (“to be suspended, hang”). In this sense, displaced native Old English hangian (“to hang or depend”).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.