Imminent means about to happen, and soon — not next month, not eventually, but any minute now. The sky goes the colour of slate, the first fat drops hit the pavement, and everyone agrees the storm is imminent.
It leans towards bad news. Imminent danger, an imminent threat, an imminent collapse: the word turns up in reports and headlines far more than in happy sentences, though an imminent arrival is fine too. It sits after is or was, or straight in front of the noun — the imminent closure of the factory. The noun is imminence and the adverb is imminently, which means very shortly. Keep it apart from eminent, which means famous and respected; one letter separates a distinguished professor from a professor who is about to happen.
1adjectiveimminentAbout to happen at any moment.
“The forecast warned that a storm was imminent.”
synonyms: impending, looming
Also accepted in games: impending
Latin imminēre meant to overhang, to jut out above something, and English took its present participle. The related minae gave us menace, and mons gave us mount — a family of words about things that loom. Something imminent is not merely close; it is hanging over you.
Proto-Indo-European
*men-
Latin
imminēre — to overhang
English, today
imminent
From the present participle of Latin imminēre (“to overhang”), from mineō ("to project, overhang"), related to minae (English menace) and mons (English mount). Compare with eminent.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA