imposing

UK/ɪmˈpəʊzɪŋ/US/ɪmˈpoʊzɪŋ/

adjectiveB2+Common in everyday speech and writing · #8,239 of 15,258leans written

Imposing means grand and impressive in size or appearance. An imposing building, an imposing figure, imposing gates.

It is about scale and presence rather than beauty — an imposing building need not be handsome, only large enough to affect you. Applied to a person it means physically commanding. Note impose, which means something quite different and mostly negative: imposing a rule, or imposing on somebody's kindness.

Definitions of imposing

1adjectiveimposingGrand and impressive in size or appearance.B2+
“The imposing stone gates led to a long drive and a huge mansion.”
synonyms: stately, commanding

imposing is a quality of grandeur.

Practised in A Song of Ice and Fire

Practise this word

imposing in the wild

The student section and pep band have seats located less than 6 feet (1.8 m) from the baseline, creating an imposing and loud student section.
McCann Arena
A hanging judge is a judge who has gained notoriety for sentencing convicted persons to death by hanging, or otherwise imposing unusually harsh sentences.
Hanging judge
The village took shape in the XIth century around the imposing Romanesque church, with domain, mill and manor.
Chailland
The imposing Hawke neo-Gothic granite church is another.
Chailland
Pavilions can vary from modest and purely practical buildings at small venues to large and imposing edifices at some of the historic grounds where Test cricket is played.
Cricket pavilion

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

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